I suppose we all have had moments when we needed to make a stand and speak up. It takes a lot of stamina sometimes, and others it just flies out of our mouths because passion drives it out. We all hope that our words will land on the right person at the right time. We all hope that our words will have a good and true meaning. And, perhaps we even hope they will last to fly out of someone else’s mouth to aid yet one or two more. Now let’s talk about the second half of Churchill’s thought: “…courage to sit down and listen.”
Listening becomes important when something grabs us by the soul’s lapel. Maybe it happens because someone goes eye to eye and forces us to hear. Maybe it’s us actually shutting our own mouths and trying to see another point of view. But when God sits you down hard, it is truly time to be still and know that He is God… That’s another loose version of a quote in the Bible.
At this time in life, I am sitting still, no work, no thought, no anything. Just sitting still and staring into the clouds, Earth itself, the stars last night…. I am knowing how small I am in the grand plan… No more than a speck of pepper against a universe that has no end. I am allowing myself to simply “be” and in His Presence.
There is no decision to be made, no place to go, nothing but Him and the physicalness of my life here on Earth, and finding Him. I am quiet and listening to the sounds of Earth, my island home.
May you also find peace, as you are still in the presence of God.
Best…
Carolyn Thomas Temple