I recently had the opportunity, along with my colleagues, to spend some time listening to and talking with Ken Myers (Mars Hill Audio Journal). During the talks, he mentioned a poem by T.S. Elliot called “Ash Wednesday.” I’d never read it, still haven’t read it all (it’s long, six lengthy stanzas). But in the fifth, there is a section that reads as follows:

“Where shall the word be found, where will the word
Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence
Not on the sea or on the islands, not
On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land,
For those who walk in darkness
Both in the day time and in the night time
The right time and the right place are not here
No place of grace for those who avoid the face
No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice”

That phrase in the last line caught my attention. We “walk among noise.” We live in a day with audible, visual, digital, technological, and informational noise on every side. And in this noise we too often lose the simple significance of carefully communicated words. We need quiet. We need times to sit with coffee at sunrise and be able to hear ourselves think. I’m enjoying one of those rare moments right now. Alone at home (that’s saying something!), with Boo at my feet, all I hear is the grandfather clock’s reassuring cadence and the tapping of the keyboard.

So anyway, when I came across that phrase, I thought, “That’s a great blog title — maybe it’s time.” So . . . by way of explanation, there it is. I hope to make this a place for some of my thoughts found in quiet moments, and maybe some images

. . . like the grandfather clock!

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