"Do not speak unless you can improve upon the silence." A Quaker saying

At some point yesterday, I realized I had reached it. The saturation point, that is. The saturation point for information, ideas, thoughts, words. For the last months I have been taking in every tidbit of news and conversation about the world….politics, economics, religion, opinions, arguments. Make no mistake about it, it is all, for the most part, good stuff, important stuff. But something clicked inside me yesterday and I knew that my mind was full to overflowing. I had ceased to take in anything else that was helpful. Like a sponge that had soaked up all the dishwater it could, I was beginning to feel heavy, sudsy, full. Like the ground that is too full of rain, I was going to begin to overflow my banks, to flood.

Last night I had to come home and simply turn it all off. I put on my pajamas, crawled under the covers and proceeded to look at the most recent issues of National Geographic Traveler. When I say look, I mean 'look.', no reading just looking at the pictures., like a child who had not yet learned to read the words.When my eyes could take no more, I just closed them and drifted off to sleep. It felt like a very healing thing to do.

The ability we have to be in constant access of information has its place. As a world, we are more informed than perhaps ever before. This is a good thing most of the time. But there is also the space needed for silence, for reflection, for stopping the world and simply listening to the sound of your own heart…or last night, the roar of the incredible winds outside the house. It was a contemplative time, a much needed time of 'no input', a time to create some sacred space to rest in the silence, to keep company with only myself.

I don't think I am alone in this need. I have a friend who, sometimes when I call to see if she is interested in doing something will say:"No, I need to be a hermit.". Being a hermit, keeping company with oneself often adds up to a prayerful time, a time of ultimate communion with the Holy. It is  good and a very needed thing, not only for this time, but for all time.