Purposeful Silence

Today’s Lenten meditation is “Fast from Idle Gossip; Feast on Purposeful Silence.” Fitting that this is the initial charge, being that I think that it will also be one of the more difficult. (My obsession with news has of late spawned a sub-obsession with celebrity news. Why? Who knows what insecurities drive us to live vicariously through the lives of others? But that is another post all together…)

But while I can quit caring about the famous and infamous for a day, the more interesting element is the idea of purposeful silence. As someone predisposed to hermitude, I frequently trade in silence, but rarely is it purposeful. In yesterday’s Thirteen Tips for Dealing with a Really Lousy Day, number six is a perfect illustration of this dilemma.

6. Exercise is an extremely effective mood booster – but be careful of exercise that allows you to ruminate. For example, if I go for a walk when I’m upset about something, I often end up feeling worse, because the walk provides me with uninterrupted time in which to dwell obsessively on my troubles.

This is me to a tee. Most of my opportunities for silence not only lack purpose, but often end up as futile exercises in self-pity, rage, or despair.

So my challenge today is multi-fold: be conscious enough to recognize opportunities for silence and not squander them to meaningless noise of life, refuse to submit to the easy lure of despair, and embrace purposeful silence as a tool for examining ideas such as gratitude and my spiritual path.

Somehow I think that physical fasting might be easier...