Its a gray day and its snowing outside. The whole land is blanketed with white and I am reduced to silence. There is nothing to look at except the falling snow. Listen and you will hear the subtle sound of the falling snow!

The snow is white and clean.
It makes a lovely scene.
It covers cars, and trees, and streets,
and makes the world go "hush".
(White Snow by Helen H. More)

Like a silent dove on the snow branch with its neck tucked in I become introspective and wonder. There is a mystery here that cannot be seen, heard or touched, yet a presence sensed with our whole being. We sense the mystery because the white snow frees our souls from the distractions of the senses. My consciousness is freed to wonder. St. Basil wrote, "When the mind is no longer dissipated across the world through the senses, it returns to itself; and by means of itself it ascends to the thought of God."

(Ps 46:10)

Each snowflake has its origin in the silent cloud and is unique. It gently floats to the ground covering the land with a blanket of silence. The sun rises each day to warm the snowflakes till one by one all will change into its primal unity, molecules of water on the wide sea. So is the destiny of our lives. God is calling each of us into his Great Silence.

The blue sky,
the white earth,
be at rest my soul.

4. Language and Silence