Not Discovered, but Revealed

Today, I yearn in midst of frantic life
Too filled with noise and stress—
Loud clamoring voices inside my mind
Leave me longing for solitude and silence.
Deep silence beyond borders—
A place full, rich, and immeasurable where
Proportion and perspective are restored.

Overhead a canopy of blue sky and racing clouds…
At night, purest darkness found on Earth…
Patiently awaiting glimmering stars
That bear witness more than any
Human words or songs can bring
To miracle of God’s enormous love.

No holy site in Jerusalem or Rome
Comes close to this remembered sanctuary
Where one is alone with deep silence
Found off among Western Isles of Scotland,
Eileach an Naoimh— rocky haven wrapped in
Silence as rough as wool. Upon this boulder,
These stones, this wide landscape of ocean
Where ever constant winds and gales…
Swells crash for the first time in
Thousands of miles to strike high cliffs—
Break upon an open heart.

There are no crowds of people,
No concessions for the hungry,
Where those who thirst
Are not satisfied by trifle of “religion”
But discover something deeper,
More elemental— where a Presence
Lives realized in fierce wind among
Ancestral stones and endless waves.
Here a hard blessing makes one vulnerable
To awareness that this foundational world of wind,
Stone, and water has no regard for us at all.

Alone, I am able to let go, relax in
Natural silence broken only by sounds that
Nature makes herself, would make in my absence,
Allowing me to feel One with all Creation.
All human endeavor is but folly when measured
Against this haven of holiness, sinking into hollow bones—
Deep Presence that waits in silence,
Not discovered but revealed in grandeur and stillness.