For no real reason

I just thought this was amazing sunrise. This is Bob's parents' farm, and it's probably about seven in the morning, in early February. Sunsets and sunrises are so beautiful--I don't think anyone would contradict that.

One of my favorite books is Le Petit Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. If you've not read it, I strongly recommend it to you.

" 'Un jour, j'ai vu le soleil se coucher quarante-quatre fois!'
Et un peu plus tard tu ajoutais:
'Tu sais... quand on est tellement triste on aime les couchers de soleil...'
'Le jour des quarante-quatre fois, tu étais donc tellement triste?'
Mais le petit prince ne répondit pas."

" 'One day,' you said to me, 'I saw the sunset forty-four times!'
And then a little later you added:
'You know--one loves the sunset, when one is so sad...'
'Were you so sad, then?' I asked, "on the day of the forty-four sunsets?'
But the little prince made no reply."

I add this for no real reason, other than whenever I think of the sunrise and the sunset I think of that passage. There is something calming about watching the display of light, slowly fading in, slowly out. It does quell sadness, and it evokes thought and reflection and, most soothing of all, silence.

Recently I've been learning to love silence. Particularly silence before God. But silence before God has to start somewhere--silence within myself. In a world of constant white noise our spirits become starved for silence. You cannot find it unless you set out to look for it... or unless the Most High leads your stubborn spirit into it. But once you're there, in the silence, you find all the peace and all the comfort that you have made all that noise in seeking. Then you can reflect, and think, and hear the still, small voice that you have tuned out so effectively for such a long time.

There will be silence before You,
and praise in Zion, o God..."
Psalm 65:1