Chapter 7: The value of humility (paragraph 18)
We should speak gently and seriously with words that are weighty and restrained. We should be brief and reasonable in whatever we have to say and not raise our voices to insist on our own opinions. (From para. 18 of Ch. 7 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
For some odd and delightful reason, Benedict's words are reading to me right now as advice for quietly approaching a nest of birds, or a very shy wild animal. Perhaps he's saying that my approach to life should be alert and respectful and self-controlled, so not as to scare away the possibility of relationship.
In a reading program where a child sits next to my dog and reads out loud there is "restraint" on the part of my dog. He does not run to, or jump up on the child. He remains still as he sits close to the child. The child feels no judgment on the part of my dog but reads to him with confidence. "I am very shy", a child confided but found her voice to read out loud. There is a leash attached to my dog's collar but he has been trained to sit and recline. This to me is a picture of what John Main refers to as "a dynamic personal presence that is to be found in the heart of each one of us, found if only we be still."(Silence & Stillness in Every Season, p.42) Through that stillness on my part, the other person can find their voice.
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