Newcomers Should be Seen and Not Heard

A promising student walked away from his contract this week. He can't choose between empty social contact and saving his life.  This loss, though tragic, will free up time for "...men who want and need it badly'...He is literally talking himself to death.  There is nothing so tragic as a know-it-all newcomer.  As my sponsor used to say to me:  "If AA wants any advice from you, we'll stick our head in the top of your box ask you for it".

Silence is a precious thing.  What a gift I wasn't allowed to share for my first five years of sobriety.  Now, I savor every word that comes out my mouth at AA meeting as precious.  What a gift this has been to me - in this age where talking is the cheapest form of service.

I don’t know about you, but I crave silence.  I want to get away from the noise and the din.  I find myself searching for it at times during the day.  Kathleen Dean Moore writes ...'silence creates an opening, an absence of self, which allows the larger world to enter into our awareness.  It brings us into contact with what is beyond us, its beauty and mystery.  Silence is not the absence of sound, but a way of living– an intentional awareness, an expression of gratitude, to make of ones own ears, ones own body, a sounding board that resonates with the vibrations of the world...'.

Perhaps what I am craving in the silence is to make space for what is beyond me.  To hear the still small voice that Elijah heard in spite of the wind, storm, and earthquake.  Maybe it is to listen to the sound and voice of all creation calling out praise to God and to allow myself and the Spirit within me to join in the chorus.  Whatever the reason, I seek it.

All of us are inundated with noise, both externally and internally.  Even our attempts at silent prayer can be filled at least initially, with chatter that comes out of us into the space of silence.  I have as a regular practice taken time for silent or centering prayer.  It is one way that I have found to be able to answer this need for silence.

It takes consistency and patience and for me it began in small increments of time.  Ever so slowly my time of silence would increase.  Yes the chatter within me came at the beginning and even now it can briefly chime in.  It requires of me a letting go of self and an intention to pay attention to what God might bring.

|...much of this was liberally borrowed from a friends blog.

COG, 1st Cl.|