by Colleen Spiro

Unless there is a still center in the middle of the storm
Unless a person in the midst of all their activities preserves a secret room in their heart where they stand alone before God,
Unless we do this we will lose all sense of spiritual direction and be torn to pieces. - Anonymous forth-century desert monk*

Silence. I crave silence. If I do not get enough silence, I cannot write, I cannot pray, I cannot think. And I get grumpy.
Silence allows us to listen to God. Silence allows us to hear His voice instead of hearing our own voices. Silence allows us to hear God in the rest of the day, in the midst of the noise, in the midst of our daily activities.
We can observe silence while folding the laundry, while waiting in line, while taking a coffee break alone.
No matter how you pray, even if your prayer is one of lots of words, everyone needs some time of silence every day, even if it is just for 10 minutes.
Try it. You may be surprised.

*(quote found in The Fire of Silence and Stillness, An Anthology of Quotations for the Spiritual Journey, edited by Paul Harris.)