Day 41 - A silent retreat among the musical chaos of family life?

Something I would like to do

I have often thought of what it would be like to go completely silent for one year. To go to a cabin in the woods, and just sit for a year by myself and not speak or utter a single word. That would be amazing. What would I learn in this one full cycle of the seasons? I would probably start in spring.

Anyway, back to reality.

I am happily and joyously married to a bright and amazing Yogini. We have adopted one child from Guatemala, one child from India, and are working on our third from Ethiopia. That, along with two children that Christine had when we got married, and we have quite a big family.

Adoption is just adding to our family. It's not humanitarian work, and its not charity. These are our children, and they bless us way more than we have ever blessed them. Their presence in our lives have opened us up in ways I never imagined before.

So, back to the point: this makes for a very hectic, busy, chaotic, loud, musical, active life. It would be impossible to go silent, but is there a way for me to have a silent retreat among the chaos of family life?

I think there is so much energy wasted by idle chatter about nothing. I find myself doing it alot. So much, I find myself talking because I am bored, talking just to talk, literally about nothing. What if I did this:

Only spoke if speaking would be of service to the awakening of Love in the hearts of Christine, Sorin, Liam, Andrew, Sky, and coming-soon Amelie...

Mostly only speaking if I am asked a question, or speaking if it is necessary to do so...

Choosing the least amount of words necessary to convey what I need to say...

Before and after speaking, go back into silence...

On Sundays, have a four hour period of no speaking...

Pull the energy back that I waste from senseless chatter and staying focused on being a conduit of Universal Love, Life-Force Energy...

And what if I listened to the Ocean of Silence during the sacred chaos of life?...

Like right now, Sorin is next to me eating her bowl of cereal, I hear Sky upstairs building a new house with his "connects," the roofers are pounding on the roof, I hear a car in the distance, and clack of this keyboard - but within and behind all these sounds, is Silence.

Silence is the birthplace of all sound. Sound arises from the Oceanic Silence of the Universe, and empties into it as well. Then there are the Cosmic Sounds, the Roar of Om that we can hear only in deep meditation...

I would love to try practicing this, this weekend and see how I feel on Sunday.

Starting.....

Now.