Listen to the Silence

Out quietly walking, deep

in thought, and all sound ceases,

even the music of the wind blowing,

your own breathing in and out,

the footfalls you leave on the gravel path,

-- not a sound, not a noise,

only silence, a stillness;

keep listening, listening for the soft voice

whispering inside you, barely recognized,

the sound of yourself welling up,

asking to be heard, that still small voice

you first heard in the darkness

of the womb, grown silent in leaving,

pushing you into the light, into the noise

and the confusion, the chaos called living,

growing up, childhood into adulthood and old age,

life drowning out that silenced voice left behind,

that same small voice in the darkness calling you now,

to remember, to recall your own beginnings,

your own past, the journeys you were meant to take,

discovering, again, who you are.