The Sounds in Silence 2014 in Maine

The theme of the 2014 New England Retreat is Sounds from the Deep: A Voyage of Listening and Learning.

We invite you to take time this summer to notice your listening and tune into the sounds around you.  

It’s 5:30 am in Newagen. The sun already shining and everything is wet with dew.

It sounds like silence when I walk out onto the deck.

Quiet and still.

But listening more closely, paying attention to what is there instead of what it not, I hear

           the crash of waves on the west shore of the island

                    the rustle of feathers of the crow coming to the bird feeder

                             the Song Sparrow’s call from across the road

           the buzz of a bee visiting the blossoms on the crab apple tree

                    the drone of a boat’s engine in the harbor

The morning is awash in sounds against a backdrop of silence.