Silence as a spiritual practice is much more than being able to sit still without talking for thirty minutes or longer. Instead, silence is a quality of presence. The silence we search for is an overall state of being. It is not something we achieve with great effort, either, but something we uncover that is inside us. Somewhere at our core there is a reservoir of silence. . . . To return regularly to this depth, whether in cloistered silence or in line at the grocery, is called "a habit of silence." It is not duration that is important, but the returning time after time to the source within us that, in time, shapes who we are.
A blessing is the natural expression of the fiery love and inclusiveness of our inner spirit. It is the manifestation of a soul-fire, and each of us can be its hearth. Each of us, you and I, can be points of reconnection, points of remembrance, points of love. We can be blessings.
~ from BLESSING: the Art and Practice by David Spangler