Going beneath the surface of life, deep sea diving into the ocean of living, seems to be much more about listening rather than about being heard.
Many pilgrims over the centuries have written about their experiences in silence and how one begins to hear deeply in those places. Silence can simultaneously beckon and repel us from her presence. I am beginning to realize how much Silence and Lady Wisdom partner together in the teaching process of listening - listening to the heart, the soul, the wind of the Spirit (Ruach). She can become our own Cave of Adullam - refuge in a place of desperation.
Words can heal, or slay, and so often they are spoken but do not seem to convey what the heart longs to say. Silence becomes the refuge where one can listen and again seek the depths of life in order to find how to firstly hear ones own heart and then know whether or not it should be given words or not.
Peregrinatio est tacere - To be silent keeps us pilgrims Pg 45 The Way of the Heart
Silence can permeate through the layers of the soul, like the humidity in the density of the forest. "permeated with a deep sense of reverence for God"
The book of Acts
Perhaps one thought that Henri Nouwen puts forward in The Way of the Heart is the idea that words are for the present and silence draws us into the mystery of the future. "the word is the instrument of the present world and silence is the mystery of the future world."
pg 42
Silence, the place of listening, is a way of learning to bring the present and the hope for the future together like Silence and Lady Wisdom. Instead of a desperation to be heard we come to the place of thirsting to listen.