We must give and receive love, which can keep us very busy. But we must balance out our love with silence.
In silence is prayer, it is rest, it is renewal, it is peace.
More often than not, we can find both God and ourselves in the silence. For those full of fear or anxiety or guilt or doubt or pain, silence is frightening. But it is still essential because without silence we cannot properly process and move past these issues.
In order for silence to do it's work, we must trust the Spirit in the silence. Trust that the Spirit will heal us, and will empower us to keep living. Trust that if we listen, the Spirit will speak.
And in an age of the internet and iPods and social networks, silence is hard to achieve. There are so many things we "need" to do. And our minds are so busy. We need to stop and allow our minds to rest and allow the Spirit to do some work for us. So, at times, we desperately need to shut our computers off, take our headphones out, get in the shower and turn on the water.
I like to occasionally go to a monastery and take a few days of silence (Trappist monasteries are good for that, and many have lodging for men and women).
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