Brave Quiet

“In repentance and rest is your salvation

In quietness and trust is your strength,

But you would have none of it.” 

Isaiah 30:15

Long solitudes are rare but revealing.

They wrap around the bruises,

press warmly into aching places,

                                        like quiet Love. 

No noisy expectation,

each day unfolds a silent mystery of Presence,

simply waiting,

simply being,

simply knowing.

I am due, long over.

But I only know this from inside the quiet.

In the busy I don’t register my need,

                                                 deep as it is.

In this gift of time and space,

I can open cluttered places of my soul

for kind inspection. 

Disorganized thoughts reshuffled,

inaccurate feelings reframed. 

I take them out,

touch them gently,

hold them for a bit and then

put them back more correctly into my story.

A long story.

A good story.

This chapter

right now

is a short one,

but hard,

confrontive,

painful,

disorienting,

reinventing,

inspiring,

exciting,

terrifying,

requiring all of me to be at hand,

to be brave.

And the silence is my bravery. 

And my healing.

Repentance.

Rest.

                           Quietness.

                                       Trust.

And I will have ‘all of it’ as it is offered me

Here in this rare long solitude,

Making me brave again.