Lean In to the Whisper

Feb 21

by James Salimes after a Woodland Quiet Retreat

I pulled into the drive at Wood & Water for a six-day silent retreat, then texted my wife letting her know that I had arrived. She texted back, “Shhh…”

The next day I sat near the trailhead of the bike path along the south branch of the Root River, where the water gulps, leaps, and swirls, finding its way around and over rocks.

Splashing, slapping, even whispering…“Shhh…”

I began to wonder, what if there were no rocks in the river? Would I hear the water whisper?

Were there no rocks, the waters, mute.

The next day, on a trail far above the cabin, I left the path to find a place to wait. Far above me, among sparse brown leaves—clapping, rustling, even whispering…“Shhh…”

What if there were no leaves in the tree? Would I hear the wind whisper?

Were there no leaves, the wind, dumb.

So, what did I hear then? What had they to say? I think I heard, “lean in.”

And when I leaned in, I heard, “impediments elicit life.”

Impediments elicit life.

The answer was not to wade into the river and remove the rocks. The answer was not to shake the tree into reticence.

In the days that followed I prayed to Spirit, “Grant me the wisdom and discipline to notice, to be aware, to embrace, to respond to impediments in my soul that I might participate in new life, new directions, new relationship.”

In my journal I wrote, “What if I leaned into moments of fear, of reluctance, of embarrassment? What new life has resistance to offer? Into what new expanses of love would I step?”

Throughout my six days, I leaned in and the whispering silence unfolded tensions in my heart. I took up what a friend of mine said a month prior to coming on the retreat. She said, “Delight in the unfolding.”

Impediments elicit life. Lean in. “Shhh…”