Saying Grace in Silence

Alone today, and yes... a little lonely. I go to the library for a book I want to use for my thoughts on 'Silence' for God in the Yard. But the library is closed. I drop books in the bookdrop and see a little bodega on the corner. Columbian food.

Standing alone, waiting for my seafood soup, I remember my loneliness. I am scraping the sticky floor with my hiking shoes now, thinking of nothing in particular, waiting, living the silence I had meant to write about today. Somewhere in the middle of my chest I sense the difficulty of silence, in a physical way that feels like waves.

Home, I open the door to a quiet house and ladle myself some seafood soup. I am now feeling meditative about my dinner. Looking down I say 'thank you' for what someone else's hands have made. 'Thank you for this beautiful, beautiful soup that I am about to eat in silence.'

Atone

Reading The Gift and came across this little note about atonement...

to reunite...
to make 'at one'...

What does it mean, then, that you atoned with blood? That you became 'at one' with us in this way? It was, I guess, the final taking on of our life here. You took on not only our beginning but our end. You became alpha-omega in the spectrum of our existence.

And we became 'at one.'