SUMMER BLESSINGS, dear friends! May we pause long enough each day to move from the sounds and birdsong into the depth soundings of our own soul songs and through to the sound of Silence.

Music is not merely a rhythmic arrangement of notes, but derives its life from the matrix of silence out of which it arises and into which it flows. And it is the silence between the notes that gives them meaning and grace.

~ from THE MUSIC OF SILENCE by David Steindl-Rast
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Last night, after praying Compline in the darkness, the final verse of the last Psalm began to move around inside me, like the Spanish canto hondo -- deep song.I found myself cooperating with this music, leaning into it, knowing that when its last note vanished into the silence, another leaf would be living in the tree I call "myself".
~ from DANCING MADLY BACKWARDS by Paul Marechal
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Do not shun the darkness of the night.Learn to love it, learn to feel it.For in the darkness of night you will hear the silent music, music that runs through all eternity, and through us, as though we were not there.It is the harmony, the rhythm of all things.It is preludes, fandangos, great symphonies of joy, all things that are in harmony.One of the strongest of all is our heartbeat, which keeps us upon this earth, and the prayers throughout the world.So in your darkness, listen quietly, for it comes at such times: the silent music of the night ... the silent music of life.
~ from DESCENT INTO LIGHT by Dorothy Fielding
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How many songs I have I cannot tell you.I keep no count of such things.There are so many occasions in one's life when a joy or a sorrow is felt in such a way that the desire comes to sing; and so I only know that I have many songs.All my being is song, and I sing as I draw breath... It is just as necessary for me to sing as it is to breathe.
~ Orpingalik, a Netsalik Eskimo
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Music reproduces for us the intimate essence, the temp and energy, of our spiritual being; our tranquility and our restlessness, our animation and our discouragement, our vitality and our weakness -- all, in fact, of the fine shades of dynamic variation of our inner life.

~ from THE CREATIVE PROCESS by Brewster Ghiselin
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My soul sings, Beloved, You are the melody.
You are the strings on which I play.
You are the One for whom I sing.
You are all that is and my soul seeks Oneness with You.
Teach me the music of life, Beloved.
Teach me to play the instrument of my Being,
and of this world, that I might see and hear
and know more clearly the nearness of your Presence.
I would sing into the Oneness that You are.

~ David Spangler
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The entire world is a musical instrument, the pole of the world celestial is intersected where this heavenly chord is divided by the spiritual sun. Earthly music is an echo of this cosmic harmony: it is a relic of heaven.

~ Author unknown, with thanks to Anne Amerson
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Music. Silence.
Two to offer to God
A magical mystery in my life.

~ Peggy Ripp
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Be like that bird
Who, pausing in flight,
Feels the bough give way
Beneath her feet
And yet sings
Knowing she hath wings.

~ Victor Hugo
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The gift of love is nothing short of a miracle, and the same is true for the experience of the singer who works with prayer: sung prayer is one of the many ways in which love is made audible and brought into the fullness of life... In sung prayer, one must risk burning and one must risk soaring, nothing less. Whether one falls in love or whether one sings in love, surrender is to be and to radiate love. In the case of the musician, this is done through the medium of music. In the case of the truly musical person, this can even be achieved through a silence which radiates interior harmony and, by extension, brings peace to those surrounding them.

~ Therese Schroeder-Sheker in SO THAT YOU MAY BE ONE by Joa Bolendas
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When our two souls stand up erect and strong,
Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,
Until the lengthening wings break into fire
At either ... curved point, -- what bitter wrong
Can the earth do to us, that we should not long
Be here contented? Think! In mounting higher,
The angels would press upon us, and aspire
To drop some golden orb of perfect song
Into our deep, dear silence.

~ from "Sonnets From the Portuguese" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
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Music is the breathing of our soul and consciousness. It is through music that the soul manifests itself in the world. When our higher consciousness is awakened, when we develop our capacity to perceive the subtler realities, we will begin to hear the great and glorious symphony that reverberates throughout space from one end of the universe to the other, and we will comprehend the deepest meaning of life.

~ from CREATION: ARTISTIC AND SPIRITUAL by Aivanhov Omraam Mikhael
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Listen for the divine music called the silence of the Spirit.

Within us, around us, the music of the spheres unfolds in rhythms celestial and melodies terrestrial... In the beginning was the creative sound, symphony, harmony and melody, every pattern and structure ever to be. The Word that was with God has not ceased to be; this very moment, it holds suspended within its vibratory magnificence, every atom, molecule, cell and organism. It sings the very earth into being. The sun, moon and planets share in a symphony of the heavens that includes every comet, asteroid and star-system in our galaxy -- and in a billion others.

Each individual who restores trust in God sounds a note in harmonic resonance with the entire cosmos. This magnifies the vibrations of the Holy Place.

~ from TERRA CHRISTA by Ken Carey
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O, listen!Hear!
Sing with me, for I am joy.
~ Cherokee Song
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