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Brian Wilcox 'Morning Glory! - Coastal Maine'
There is no argument needed for the necessity of taking time out for being alone, for withdrawal, for being quiet without and still within. The sheer physical necessity is urgent because the body and the entire nervous system cry out for the healing waters of silence. One could not begin the cultivation of the prayer life at a more practical point than deliberately to seek each day, and several times a day, a lull in the rhythm of daily doing, a period when nothing happens that demands active participation.
*Howard Thurman. Meditations of the Heart.
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The Sage often heard in reply, when urging the necessity for ample daily time alone in quiet devotion, "I don't have time ..." Hence, he told the following story -
The Abbot spent several hours daily in devotion, engaging in prayer and, mostly, silent contemplation. His lamp was on long before the monks arose. His lamp at night went off well after the monks had turned off theirs. Often he would skip a meal and be seen walking to the garden for quiet and prayer. It was his habit to enter into prayer upon waking during the night. A monk asked, "How do you get all the work done you do daily and spend so much time alone in worship." The Abbot said, "Were it not for all that time spent alone in the Quiet, I would not be able to get all that work done."
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The Sage knew "I don't have time" is not a reason, but an excuse. When the essential thing in our life becomes living in intimacy with the Spirit of Life, we will not have to find time to attend to our inner being, we will see we have that time already.
Likewise, the self-justification "I don't have time" is a way we can avoid intimacy with the Beloved, protecting ourselves from the Light of Grace. We can hide in our busyness, even doing good things for others. Yet, what others need most from us is not our busyness or our doing good. Others most need the Graciousness that emanates from us due to our time alone communing heart-with-heart with Spirit.
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Time alone with Spirit is like soaking in the supernal Light. We place ourselves under the silent, penetrating radiance of the heavenly Influence. Then, as we move among others, they can be nourished from simply being in our presence. We become a silent witness to the love we have shared in aloneness with Love.
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Gospel of Luke 5.15-16 (NLV)-
But the news about Yeshua [Jesus] was spreading all the more, and many crowds were coming together to hear and to be healed of their diseases. Yet He would often slip away into the wilderness and pray.
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(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2020
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