When Your Tongue Is Silent – Thomas Merton

It’s been almost four years since Denise and I left our beautiful mountain community of Estes Park, Colorado. There was something magical about the Rocky Mountain National Park which was literally in our backyard. There was something mystical and breathtaking about getting to know our neighbors like the fellow above who spent a lot of time in our condo complex. He recognized us by sight and by our scent… we recognized him by his unique set of antlers. Mature bulls are easily distinguished by the number and placement of the “points” on their rack. Such awe and wonder were almost a daily occurrence for us and included an official excuse to be late for a meeting. An elk jam as the herd crosses the church parking lot and street as they made their way from the golf course to Fish Creek was my excuse, along with half of our session (church governing body), for being late to my first session meeting!

After we left Presbyterian Community Church of the Rockies in August of 2020, I served two more Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations in a specialized capacity as both a Designated Minister and Interim Minister. Now we are settling into our new home here in Alabama as we try our hand at retirement.

Even though we live in the midst of the city of Mobile (in the Midtown neighborhood) we are finding wonder, magic, and beauty as we walk quiet streets of our neighborhood where Southern live oaks and magnolia trees are all around us. While some might believe that it is more difficult to find the same sort of quiet and silence here that we had in Estes Park, we have found spaces of silence and quiet in Mobile that brings a similar sense of awe and wonder.

During some study and reflection this morning, I re-discovered this March, 1952 journal entry written by Thomas Merton:

When your tongue is silent, you can rest in the silence of the forest. When your imagination is silent, the forest speaks to you, tells you of its unreality and of the Reality of God. But when your mind is silent, then the forest becomes magnificently real and blazes transparently with the Reality of God. — Thomas Merton (Journal entry, March 17, 1952) A Year with Thomas Merton: Daily Meditations from His Journals

As Denise and I begin this next chapter in our journey and as we gradually unpack and make our new house our home, I am finding more time for reading, reflection, and silence. And we will continue to explore our new home and neighborhood, looking forward to experiencing what Merton calls “the Reality of God” here in this place.

The inspiration for this reflection came from day one of the self-study retreat, Monk in the World, offered by the “Abbey of the Arts” and led by our online Abbess Christine Valters Paintner. For more information about the Abbey and other course offerings, I invite you to click on this link and begin to explore what it means to be a monk in the world.