Module Four: Quietness

Stepping more deeply into the idea of rest and quiet.

The Mystic Way of Evangelism, chapter 4, "Coming Home to Love"

After you have completed the above, choose one of the the following:

  • TED Radio Hour “Quietness

  • "Like Snow" from Wendell Berry: New Collected Poems, pg 367

  • John Cage: “4’33” for Piano”

Between every electrical impulse that causes the heart to contract is the absolute refractory period. It is the portion of time that it takes for the sodium channels to reset in the muscle fibers of the heart. During this time the heart experiences a brief period of electrical quietness.

One of the components of healthy soil is space. Without this space, oxygen and carbon dioxide have no room to dance, to exchange, to breathe. I grew up in the central part of North Carolina where the soil is red, packed, airless clay. It is back and heart breaking for a gardener, but it makes great bricks.

Space. Silence. Rest. Quietness.

These are things that the soul requires.

How has the noise in our lives made our soil into bricks?