God who loves us knows us. We long to be known, not only from the outside but from within. We feel that if others knew us as we really are, with our hopes, dreams and struggles to be whole, they would have a compassionate and tolerant love for us. Conversely, were we to live for an hour within the mind of another, even that of a social outcast, we would come away humbled and more understanding. We cannot know people from within, only from without and with difficulty despite our love. Not so with God. The Spirit of God has been poured out on us. God has made a home in us.

~ by Sean Caulfield in The God of Ordinary People

What if becoming who and what we truly are happens not through striving and trying but by recognizing and receiving the people and places and practices that offer us the warmth of encouragement when we need to unfold?
How would this shape the choices you make about how to spend today?

~ Oriah Mountain Dreamer, from Prelude to "The Dance"

Let go into the clear light, trust it, merge with it,
and enter the Silence, your true home.

The more light you allow within you,
the brighter the world you live in will be.

~ Shakti Gawain. Read more in Creative Visualization

I love you, gentlest of Ways...

You, the great homesickness we could never shake off,
you, the forest that always surrounded us...

~ by Rainer Maria Rilke from "Ich Liebe dich, du sanftestes Gesetz", translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy. Read more in Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

Once we begin to see our lives within our own families as opportunities for spiritual development, the possibility of inner growth is unlimited. Home is no longer just a place to eat and sleep, but a school for our souls and spirits. Each day yields its lesson, and our children and partners become our teachers. We find our rhythm and learn to harmonize. We learn how to cherish and care for one another and how to care for our own souls as well. We learn to dance together, how to lead and when to follow. In so doing, we bring about changes both large and small, for our children, nurtured by rhythm, may ultimately heal and restore the rhythm of the world.

~ by Katrina Kenison in Mitten Strings for God

The stars up in the bright sky
When it's nighttime.
The people eating inside.
The animals eating outside.
Amen.

~ The prayer of a 3-year-old

When someone deeply listens to you it is like holding out a dented cup you've had since childhood and watching it fill up with cold, fresh water. When it balances on top of the brim, you are understood. When it overflows and touches your skin, You are loved... When someone deeply listens to you, your bare feet are on the earth and a beloved land that seemed distant is now at home within you.

~ by John Fox in Finding What you Didn't Lose

...the house of my soul is narrow; enlarge it that thou mayest enter in.

~ St. Augustine. Read more in The Confessions

Because this bird is singing to me,
I belong to the wide wind,
The people far away who share
The air and the clouds.
Together we are looking up
Into all we do not own
And we are listening.

~ by Naomi Shihab Nye from "Messages from Everywhere". Read more in A Maze Me

And one day, when I need
to tell myself something intelligent
about love,

I'll close my eyes
and recall this room and everything in it...

~ by Li-Young Lee from "This Room and Everything in It". Read more in The City in Which I Love You

What we speak becomes the house we live in.

~ Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky. Read more in The Gift

This is the bright home
In which I live,
This is where
I ask
My friends
To come,
This is where I want to love all the things
It has taken me so long
To learn to love.

~ by David Whyte from "The House of Belonging". Read more in The House of Belonging

Singing the Trees: Chant, Nature and Soul

Join us as we sing and chant, listen to the music around us, and walk the companionship of the trees.

April 24 - 26, 2020 at Rolling Ridge Study Retreat (near Harpers Ferry WV).

Root and Fire: Restorying the Heroine's Journey 2020

This annual retreat includes openings for wandering in solitude, sharing dreams and stories, ceremony, the rhythm of drums, and sacred circle dance.

May 29 - 31, 2020 at Rolling Ridge Study Retreat (near Harpers Ferry WV).

Or schedule your own Personal Retreat.

Friends of Silence is devoted to nurturing those who reverence silence, prayer, contemplation, the Divine Guest, and the Oneness of all creation. Personal retreat can be a wonderful discipline for those seeking the life-giving empowerment that derives from the Silence. We have partnered with Still Point Mountain Retreat to be able to offer space for personal retreat for our members, whether you come as an individual, couple, family, or small group. The wilderness setting of Still Point provides the quiet and solitude necessary for an ideal personal retreat experience.

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