AT A CERTAIN POINT

“You empty yourself and wait, listening.

After a time you hear it: there is nothing there.

There is nothing but those things only, those

created objects, discrete, growing or holding, or swaying,

being rained on or raining, held, flooding or

ebbing, standing, or spread. You feel the world’s word

as a tension, a hum, a single chorused note everywhere

the same. This is it: this hum is the silence . . .

The silence is all there is. It is the alpha and the

omega. It is God’s brooding over the face of the waters;

it is the blended note of the ten thousand things,

the whine of wings. You take a step in the right direction

to pray to the silence, and even to address the

prayer to “World.” Distinctions blur. Quit your tents.

Pray without ceasing.” *

*Annie Dillard