Silence. Is it possible to find true silence? When I try to be quiet, to sit and not make any noise, my mind starts running, rousing an internal symphony of doubts and worries and shoulds. And then the dog barks. And a bird sings. And a car door slams. And someone else in the house stirs. Is silence something that anyone can ever find?

And what does one do when one is in that place of silence and quiet? I think I look for the noise because I’m not sure what I should do when I am in true silence. The void, the place of nothing is terrifying and as much as I say I want to go there, I don’t know what I should do when I arrive. I suspect my subconscious keeps me away from true silence out of a sense of fear and hesitation.

Is silence a place to encounter God, to wrestle with one’s demons, or to move to a place of healing? Is silence a space where we focus on our own thoughts and ideas or a place where we think about our presence in the world? One of the challenges of silence is that when we find that blessed opportunity to actually engage and be in a place of silence we often do not know what to do when we are in it. So we stir, we scratch, we distract ourselves, and we avoid the silence that we say we desire.

There are many books written about silence, about going into the desert, about getting away and connecting with one’s “inner-self.” To write about the importance of retreat and silence is not a new thing by any stretch of the imagination, so to see another book about silence may lead one to yawn and wonder if there is anything more to say about a topic for which one really should not talk. I could read Thomas Merton’s great writings on solitude and I am sure that would be satisfying. I could read some of the mystics and early church saints on their engagement with the wilderness and that would give me something with weight and depth to consider. I could look at Walden one more time and try to glean more wisdom that might have been missed by the multitudes before me. There are many great books that offer different approaches to silence that have been in the annuals of Western literature for some time.

Yet Sally Longley has found a way to offer something different and unique when considering the idea of silence. Longley starts with the notion of a Rosetta Stone; a cypher or turn-key offering a variety of approaches to silence. From engaging with the shadows of our past (passe) to the Japanese concept of “Ma,” and even the story of Susanna (found in the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian collection of the Apocrypha), Longley offers a diversity of approaches to the notion of silence. Longley does not just offer an academic description of each different approach, but instead offers a narrative of her own encounter with the divine in different ways through engagement with silence. It is the narrative approach, the effort to make one vulnerable, that strengthens the book. Longley does not just tell the reader what to do, but instead shows what the encounter may look like, how it may feel, and what might happen to the practitioner of meditation and silence.

There are times when the chapters feel a little jumbled and lacking a linear flow, but when reading one is always called to trust the author, and Longley does not leave the reader to fend for themselves. In each chapter, after the narrative is offered, after some more background is shared, Longley invites the reader to investigate their own experiences of silence, to consider their own stories, and how one perspective of silence may speak to the reader.

After engaging with Longley’s book the reader may find themselves wanting or hoping for more. More stories, more information, and more ways of engaging with the silence. All I can do is suggest that the reader take a chapter, read and sit with it, and see what the silence brings.

The gem of wisdom that Longley offers is that there is not just one way of engaging and experiencing silence. There is not just one lens that one should embrace, but multiple ways of being still or being stirred in silence. Find a way and see if there is a blessing. Or, find a different way and see if there is a blessing. Keep searching, keep looking, and keep listening in the silence and you will find a blessing.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.