Serendipitous Silence

I loved reading Worthwhile Magazine. It focused on discovering your purpose in life both personally and professionally. Worthwhile changed its name to Motto due to a legal battle over the name. I loved Motto, too. It shouted “what’s your motto?” What do you stand for?

Unfortunately, Motto wasn’t in business very long. When it folded Ode Magazine sent Motto subscribers a few issues of their magazine to check out. I wasn’t feeling a connection until the July/August issue arrived. It was completely dedicated to the subject of “silence.”

It had many insightful articles on “silence” including one on “One Square Inch of Silence,” in Washington State’s Olympic National Park, a subject of an earlier post of mine.

The Buddhist proverb seems to apply here “when the student is ready the teacher appears.” The "silence" issue spoke volumes to me. I thought about silence in new ways, like what it is like to hear dawn break, or how music is as much about the silences in between the notes as the notes, or how sometimes just being there matters more than anything that is said.

In silence, we ask for nothing and we need nothing, we are complete.