Sampling simple life higlights how we live with such a racket
THE sound of silence... it’s deafening.
I am writing this from Glasshampton Monastery in Worcestershire, where I am on a four-day silent retreat.
It’s one of those places where, outside of the five times of prayer a day, you enter a world of total silence. Meals are in silence and communication is limited to gestures. There is no wi-fi and a sporadic connection to the internet.
The friars who live here are surrounded by this heavy silence. So much so that they speak so softly you have to strain to hear them.
I’ll be honest, I’m such an extrovert I find it very hard to be so alone in the silence. Yet, in isolation, you meet yourself on your journey to meeting God within.
The first thing I encountered on this silent journey was just how exhausted I was by noise coming at me from eve- rywhere in normal life. The second was the shock of how slow everything is in the monastery. Nothing is rushed.
Prayers are said slowly, quietly, and the silence is like being covered in a gentle film of love. In normal life there is no time to be or to savour the life we have.
Being in God’s time is so different to our own. God’s time is unpressured, the sun comes up and sets. The moon rises, the seasons change, all without noise or weariness. Lastly, you are struck by simplicity.
The disciplined life these men lead is simple. They eat and own only what they need. It makes me reflect on how complicated my normal life is.
Perhaps we’ve all got lessons to learn from the monastery. Slow down, quieten down, simplify your life. After all the sun will still come up tomorrow.