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Conversations with Silence: Rosetta Stone of the Soul
Silence—scary, inviting, or both? What do you do with silence? And what if silence was a language we could learn to read, hear, and even speak? This book invites you to tune the eyes and ears of your heart to the cadences of silence. Enter into conversations with silence as you are taken on an odyssey. Venture into the Australian bush. Trek deep into the red desert. Encounter shadows and desert dwellers. You will also delve into the tiny houses of everyday silences and receive their gifts of hospitality. And stumbling into that other territory, where silence becomes a death threat, or survival, an orchard can show you the fruit of life beginning again.
Conversations with Silence takes you to the Rosetta Stone of an ancient, forgotten language, a language some have called God, or the soul. Immerse yourself in the silent realm of mystics, musicians, poets, and pilgrims of every path. These are our companions, as we explore the nuanced vocabulary of the worlds of silences and join in the conversation with a new voice.
Conversations with Silence takes you to the Rosetta Stone of an ancient, forgotten language, a language some have called God, or the soul. Immerse yourself in the silent realm of mystics, musicians, poets, and pilgrims of every path. These are our companions, as we explore the nuanced vocabulary of the worlds of silences and join in the conversation with a new voice.
172 pages, Paperback
Published January 8, 2021
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8 people want to read
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July 17, 2021Conversations with Silence
Sally Longley
`Sally Longely reminds us of what we have forgotten in our society. Our materialistic age is destroying us, and Sally calls us to look at a different way of living and search for meaning. She calls us into silence where God dwells and we find our true selves. Below is a reflection of my inner journey, how I inner the journey into the heart:
For it is not knowing much, but realizing and relishing things interiorly, that contents and satisfies the soul," Sally Longley
========
Several nights ago I had a dream, one that has haunted me in many ways, this past week.
I was standing on the side of a crossroads, and a caravan passed on the other side, and there were I do not know how many young men and women smiling at me from the windows of this caravan. I knew their names, Zach, Sean, Mouse, etc., the young adults whose lives I have touched through the years. And as the caravan passed a voice said to me: "Your work is not done yet, and know you are loved, now and always." I call that voice the Angel of Death, passes through my life, hovers over me so often, and reminds me I will die, so do the work.
I am often asking the question, "Why did you come to Polk Street, why are you an "eccentric"?
Many of the early mystics and desert fathers and mothers fled to the desert, not as a place of escape, but as a place of confrontation with their own inner demons and of deep encounter with the living God.
It had been three years since I had left prostitution and was working, being very materialistic, and the demons of lack of purpose and meaning surrounded me. In my years being a prostitute, I had experienced and seen so much evil, and I had done so much to survive. So I came to the "desert of Polk Street", which was then filled with gay bars and prostitution.
The God of all exodus movements, who leads us through our wanderings in the desert, also provides manna for us. I found healing in walking with the young men and women in the caravan, and the ones now, I found my call, purpose.
"We are a people of memory," writes Carmelite theologian and author Constance Fitzgerald. She speaks of how dwelling prayerfully in deep silence enables, "a kind of unraveling" of memory to occur in such a way that the memories are not suppressed or obliterated, but instead are "uncoupled from the self. . In a mysterious way, there is a cutting of both past and memory that is inimical to one's personhood," God's spirit helps us by joining wholesome ways of being in relation to our past and creating a bank of new life-giving images and memories that we can savor.
I have been called an "eccentric" which Chryssavigis remarks: "eccentricity means moving to the center, re-centering world on God." It is that recentering which Jesus was talking about. His disciples argued about who was to be first, wanting to set up false boundaries of power and care. Jesus calls them to eccentricity.
"Eccentricity means moving the center, re-centering the world on God." Cultivating a contemplative life means we need to be counter-cultural and make space for work that only prayerfully silence can do in our lives.
Eccentricity crosses traditional boundaries, and allows one to call everyone a "friend". And in so doing seeing our task as giving to all from our own resources, and to love, even when we do not want to love.
For some being a nurse, brings that silence, that centeredness, or being a bookkeeper, but work that allows one to bring God, and service to others into one's life.
I have been told that "you can not do this work alone," the reality is I am not alone. Those of you who read this have given me support, some for many years, you are my community. You will never know how much each check, each email, a phone call means to me, through them you are Jesus speaking. I treasure those moments.
I am an introvert and need much time alone, and my call is one of not marrying, and doing my work. This ministry, "my desert" fits me, we all must find our own deserts.
And as we encounter God through becoming attentive and beholding in wonder little-known saints, the trees, grasses, riverbeds, and the humblest and most exquisite of creatures, such as the dragon lizard. As we listen to the wisdom all this strange and magnificent world has for us, we hear the Creator's voice, and are drawn into relishing a honeyed feast with God. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
---------------------
Fr. River Sims, D.Min.
www.temenos.org
415-305-2124
July 20, 2021
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.
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.
April 14, 2022
A helpful book for people who want to befriend silence and develop authenticity and creativity as they grow in their conversations with God. Sally's tools of Bible text, theology, memory, and imagination are shared transparently and generously, so that we are invited to sojourn with her on her prayer journey. A gift of a read.
February 4, 2025
A deeply engaging book examining the many ways in which we can be with silence. As a newcomer to this way it is hard to stay in the place the God sets for us but Sally does great job of sharing personal experience and deep understanding to ease one’s journey.
January 3, 2022
Thought provoking. Not sure I followed all that Sally was saying or that I felt comfortable with what she said.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews