Is it Quiet Out? • Steven Mead

Steven Mead

Steven provides Program Ministry services to UU Santa Fe―learning, small group ministry, connecting, and justice-making support. He has served congregations large and small in the East, Midwest, and now here at UU Santa Fe.

My ears are broken.  They haven't worked right for decades.  Hearing aids help, but they aren't magic.  So, every so often, I have to ask my partner, "Is it quiet out?"  Quiet is merely the absence of sound.  Stillness is a state of being in the world around you.  Silence and stillness are not the same.  So what I am really asking is, 'Is it Still?' because I can no longer tell the difference, and it is so important to me to know, 'Is it still?'

There is grace in stillness, like how the world "sounds" different with eight inches of snow all over it. So many of our great religious and wisdom traditions exalt stillness.  Mystic and meditative practices all know the value of stillness.  For example, silence and stillness is at the heart of Zen practice.  But sometimes stillness just comes up behind us.  And we have to be ready for it.  Open to grace.

Is it quiet, yet?

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​“Be still.
Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity.”
― Laotzu