Tuesday Musings - The Sound of Silence

 Paul Simon’s 1964 hit with Simon and Garfunkel, “The Sound of Silence” laments the inability of people to communicate with each other. But certain phrases evoke some of the themes we’ve been discussing on our journey. “People hearing without listening”, “Here my words that I might reach you” evoke in me the challenges of connecting with God.

Today was the first day we walked for 2 hours in silence, focusing on the meditation theme Paul gave us or on whatever come into our heads as we walked to Zummaraga. For me, there still is a lot of noise, my brain jumped from topic to topic as I concentrated on the physical activity, but themes are beginning to form. Ed reported a challenge of being able to focus on both the physical and the spiritual at the same time and I hadn’t thought of that so may adjust my perspective as we go forward. Paul told me he felt more in tune with the sights and sounds going on around him as he walked and finding inspiration there. But silence is hard, at least for me. People connections fuel me and not communicating feels like cutting off a good portion of what makes me, well me. And that may be the point. Ignatius transformed himself from a wild child to a devout follower of Jesus but changing who he was. Paraphrasing Fr Jose, it was a choice between earthly glory and eternal glory. The call is to trust God completely in all you do. I’m not there, maybe will never get there but do see a path to be tilted in that direction. 

While The Sound of Silence played on a loop in my head for most of the walk, perhaps clearing that noise and a better focus on thoughtful silence can help me achieve some of the goals I had when I set out on this pilgrimage.

Time will tell