Note to Myself

Do not expect the Silence to always be silent.
Life is taking place outside this Meeting House.
The good honest work of the world is noisy, raucous and jarring.
Maybe today, Spirit wants to jar you, for its own good reasons.
Why do you assume that Spirit will only speak the way you want to hear,
        some gentle, modulated voice, so as not to annoy you?
Maybe you need to be annoyed.
Maybe the barking dog knows this, or the shrieking children in the yard.
Maybe the chainsaw and the leaf-blower and the nail-gun know this.
Maybe they are all Spirit, just trying to get your attention.
Maybe the incessant ticking of that old clock (for God’s sake, why don’t they get a digital one?)
        is Spirit counting down the interminable seconds it has been waiting for you.
Do not expect the Silence to be silent.
Listen.