CandlesSometimes…

Sometimes I do my best work when no one sees me at the plow. Sometimes I have my best swims when no one sees me reach the shore. Sometimes the best things I’ve ever written are the stories no one will ever read. Sometimes I’m my most grateful when I’ve never said a word.

Sometimes I just need to shut up and ride the wave. Sometimes I need to watch without comment. Sometimes my utter silence is when I am at my most profound. Sometimes I need to watch the sunrise without painting it, or writing about it, or describing its glory in words. Sometimes the greatest art is found when doing nothing at all.

No one needs tell the fire to burn, or the sun to set. No one needs to command the leaves to change their color, or to fall to the ground. No one needs to direct the tides, or teach the winds how to blow. We are all so beautiful in our own natural setting. Sometimes I just need to return there.

I wonder if the inspiration of silence I’ve experienced over the last week is a great gift of the Divinity that often overflows my chalice with words. I wonder, as I watch others flail about their oceans with words that fail to have real meaning, if silence is truly a gift I have been given. I wonder if that which I’ve often viewed as horrible consequence is actually the thrill of my life. Sometimes I just need to see it differently.

Maybe in the silence I have found the value of the sound. Maybe in the lie I have found the value of the truth. Maybe in the stark blankness of the sheets of paper that lie before me I have found the value of the gift I have been given. Maybe sometimes I need to lose in order to win the greatest prize of all.

There is much love in the things we fear the most, and there is much hope in our greatest despair. It’s there, after all, that we will find the meaning of it all. Sometimes I simply takes the courage to look.