Listening to Silence

Each summer, at the end of August, I spend some time at New Camaldoli Hermitage and Monastery in Big Sur, California.

I am there this week, listening to silence.

New Camaldoli has become a second home to me. I am a lay person who has been received into the community, known as a lay oblate.

My relationship to New Camaldoli, and the monks who live there, is unlike any other in my life.

It is the place of silence and restoration where I go to struggle to know God and my true self more deeply. My connection is strong, and is not based on what I say or how I perform. They welcome me to spend time with them regularly, and expect almost nothing from me. Being with them, and the silence, is more than enough.

New Camaldoli is a sacred place.

I spend time with people all year long connecting their everyday experiences to the sacred in their lives. I listen and ask questions. I suggest things for them to try and to consider. I write and I talk.

I go to New Camaldoli to breathe in the sacred; to go beyond thoughts, words, and feelings.

I take along a few things to read and might do some writing, but I do not want any real distractions. There is very little sound beyond the wind, the ocean, and wildlife. I am beyond the reach of my iPhone and my iPad.

There are apparently many more stars in the night sky at New Camaldoli than there are in Southern California.

I take walks, pray with the monks, and listen to silence.

Thomas Keating, another monk, says that God’s first language is silence, and that everything else is a poor translation.

What restores you?

Where do you go to listen to silence?

[Image by bschmove]