The Silent Word

There was only the dark infinity in which nothing was.  And something happened.  At the distance of a star something happened, and everything began.  The Word did not come into being, but it was.  It did not break upon the silence, but it was older than the silence and the silence was made of it.
—    Navarre Scott Momaday
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On This Day In:
2020	Releasing Their Fears
2019	17 Days Until The Next Government Shutdown
2018	Disciplined Models
2017	We Cannot Afford Enemies
2016	Love Is Just A State Of Mind
2015	Waiting?
2014	Big C, Little B (II)
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2013	Chasing His Dragon
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2012	Believe In Yourself
2011	Cultural Equivalence
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Sometimes Just Being There Is Enough

The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing. . .  not healing, not curing . . .  that is a friend who cares.
—  Henri J. Nouwen
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On This Day In:
2019	Or Live For It
2018	Happy Thanksgiving (2018)
2017	Grateful Humility
2016	Obstacles
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2015	Done What You Could
2014	Impossible To Other Men
2013	Just In Case
2012	Isn’t This Just Pleasant?
2011	No Void In Sight

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Insensitive To Silence

Writing engenders in us certain attitudes toward language. It encourages us to take words for granted.  Writing has enabled us to store vast quantities of words indefinitely.  This is advantageous on the one hand but dangerous on the other.  The result is that we have developed a kind of false security where language is concerned, and our sensitivity to language has deteriorated.  And we have become in proportion insensitive to silence.
—     Navarre Scott Momaday
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On This Day In:
2019	Judging Success
2018	Something Else
	Day 21: 10% Loss
2017	Courage
2016	Don’t H8! — I’m With Her!!
2015	$20 Anyone?
2014	And Yet I Still Study
2013	Use Your Own
2012	Strengthen Freedom
2011	Attrition = A Lack Of Imagination
2010	Mind The Fire, Love
	Just Beyond My Reach…
	Even A Life Of Quiet Desperation!
	Acts Of Courage

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#45: Diarrhea Of The Mouth, Constipation Of The Brain

Either be silent or say things that are worth more than silence.
—   Leo Tolstoy
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On This Day In:
2019	Four Buffett’s
2018	Change Happens
	Day 13: Ginger / Mint Relief
2017	Still Removing Bricks
2016	Namaste
2015	Still Learning
2014	Dark Processes
2013	To The Last Link
2012	Slept In Again
2011	Home Again, Naturally
2009	Thoughts after a long day of OT…

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Insensitive To Silence

Writing engenders in us certain attitudes toward language.  It encourages us to take words for granted.  Writing has enabled us to store vast quantities of words indefinitely.  This is advantageous on the one hand but dangerous on the other.  The result is that we have developed a kind of false security where language is concerned, and our sensitivity to language has deteriorated.  And we have become in proportion insensitive to silence.
—    N. Scott Momaday
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On This Day In:
2019	Don’t Be Small
2018	Persistence
2017	Are You A Loser?
2016	Constitution And Conscience
2015	Separate, Fearful And Imprisoned
2014	Something Worth Making
2013	Absolutely
2012	Can Do
2011	Wise Criticism

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In Silence

The contemplative waits in silence and when he is ‘answered’, it is not so much by a word that bursts into his silence.  It is by this silence itself suddenly, inexplicably, revealing itself to him as a word of great power.
—    Thomas Merton
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On This Day In:
2018	A Gift
2017	Unless You Genuinely Are Small
2016	B1
2015	Five Things
2014	Have Faith
2013	Found In A Mine
2012	Two-Sided Coin
2011	Passionately Scorned Rules

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Speak Up / Call Out

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.
—   Martin Luther King Jr.
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On This Day In:
2018	Does Smiling Count?
2017	Giving Much
2016	Sounds Like Class
2015	Inert Ideas
2014	Worth Anything?
2013	Bruises Before Bed (Or Why You Didn’t Answer)
	Revealed Riches
2012	Extra Gears
2011	Say What?
2010	Hello Frogs…

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Silent Purpose

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.
—    Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
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On This Day In:
2018	Just Bake The Cake, Man
2017	Visible Proof
2016	Poor Enough Means
2015	Still Standing
	Follow Your Heart
2014	Just Reminded
2013	A Fine Balance
2012	One Measure
2011	Seeking The Common Ground
	In Brightest Day…

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Prepare For The 2020 Election

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
—    Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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On This Day In:
2018	Why #45 Is Uncivil And Sinking
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	Is This Still The United States Of America?
2017	Go Where?
2016	Returning To The Same Box
2015	The Hunter’s Music
2014	Dedication
2013	Unhappy Alternatives
2012	Implications
2011	Never Let Us Down

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Of Course, You Still Have To Listen

Not all of us are called to be hermits, but all of us need enough silence and solitude in our lives to enable the deeper voice of our own self to be heard at least occasionally.
—    Thomas Merton
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On This Day In:
2018	Coming Home
2017	It’s Just Around The Bend
2016	In What Direction?
2015	Embarrassing Myself Again
2014	I’ve Never Have Had
2013	Glory Days (part 1)
2012	Feeling Old?
2011	Even When I Wish Really, Really Hard
	Skeptical Fathers
	Cha-cha-cha-changes

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Quiet, Please!

A loss of silence is as serious as a loss of memory and just as disorienting.  Silence is, after all, the natural context from which we listen.  Silence is also the natural context from which we speak.
—    Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.
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On This Day In:
2018	Heavy On The Starch
2017	But The Beginning Of What?
2016	Today’s Rule
2015	Remembering Oklahoma City
2014	Who Was That Masked Man?
2013	Enemy Mine
2012	Strengthen Me
2011	Service, Please
2010	The Church In Crisis…

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#ContinueToResist

To sin by silence when they should protest, makes cowards of human beings.
—    Abraham Lincoln
[It is vitally important to continue resisting the programs of President Trump and the Republican Senate.  It is equally important to support the Democratic control of the House of Representatives.  Remember, if there is no clear election in the Electoral College in 2020, the decision of who will be the next President will fall to the House of Representatives.  I believe this is what the Republicans were actually hoping for when the “Anyone but Trump” Republican movement went silent.  They didn’t have to get Trump elected President in the popular vote.  The Republicans only had to tie up the Electoral College.  In which case, Paul Ryan most probably would have been “elected” President.  One: he was the Republican VP nominee in the prior election (2012).  Normally, when the ticket fails, the VP choice is the next one in line to be put forward.  And, two: Ryan was the Speaker of the House, which means he was already the “prime” person to be elevated from the House to the Oval Office.  When (in 2016) Florida went to the Republicans and the House was retained by the Republicans, they only needed one of the Rust Belt states and South Carolina to stop Clinton, irrespective of her national popular vote count.  The same conditions will be true in 2020, if the Republicans can somehow flip the House back to their control.
Added to that (final control of the Presidential election), the House also has primary responsibility for seat reapportionment after the 2020 census.  If Republicans flip control back (to themselves) they will use even more gerrymandering to reduce the value of the popular vote.  (Of course, this presumes the Republicans retain control of the majority of the State Houses, too.  Since they control 32 States to the Dems 14, it seems likely they will.)  Don’t misinterpret me.  The Democratic Party will also gerrymander, but they “generally” do so to increase the value of the popular vote.  They (the Democrats) “only” do this because the demographics of the future favor the the Democratic Party.  Basically, older (mostly white male) voters are dying and the younger voters (across all genders, ethnic breakdown, income and education levels) replacing them on the voting roles are trending to the Democratic Party.  And without newer ideas, the Conservative / Republican Party will continue to wither away.  IMHO: It is only “Dark Money” and the Citizens United decision which have propped the Republican Party up this far.
A word to the wise should suffice…   Stay engaged locally.   #Resist   —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2018	More Executive Time For #DumbDonald
2017	Watched The Inauguration
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2016	Come Dance And Laugh With Me
2015	Looks Good To Me
2014	Desire For The Sea
2013	The Fierce Urgency Of NOW
	Happy Inauguration Day!
2012	One Path
	Sorrow And Joy
	The Seven Year View
2011	Emergent Practicality

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Silence Presence

We have to earn silence . . .  to work for it; to make it not an absence but a presence; not emptiness but repletion.  Silence is something more than just a pause; it is that enchanted place where space is cleared and time is stayed and the horizon itself expands.
—    Pico Iyer
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On This Day In:
2017	Feeling Small Standing In Front Of My Shelves
2016	Show Willing
2015	If He Only Knew…
2014	Dared To Love
2013	Strong Kung-Fu
2012	Two Tribes
2011	Made Any Assumptions Lately?

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Instinct For Presence

Our spirit has an instinct for silence.
Every soul innately yearns for stillness,
for a space, a garden where we can till, sow, reap, and rest,
and by doing so come to a deeper sense of self and our place in the universe.
Silence is not an absence but a presence.
Not an emptiness but repletion.
A filling up.
—    Anne D. LeClaire
Found at one of the blogs I follow:  http://upwardbound.me/
The specific link is:  http://upwardbound.me/2016/09/09/our-spirit-has-an-instinct-for-silence/
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On This Day In:
2017	Hard Enough
2016	Jumps
2015	One View Of Failure
2014	We Speak For Earth
2013	Inward Urgency
2012	Delayed Reviews
	Fulfilling My Duty
2011	Interference

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After Silence

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
―    Aldous Huxley
From:  “Music at Night and Other Essays“
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On This Day In:
2017	Are You Looking Forward To A Trump Presidency?
2016	Three Errors From Eureka
2015	Limiting Choices
2014	Praise The Lord And Pass The Hypocrisy
	That Sound
2013	Still Waiting For Answers
2012	Informal Leadership
2011	A Little More Progress
2010	Bec’s Gone Again…

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