Thank you very much for the generous offer to join this community. The space you are creating is beautiful and fertile.

With others in Europe, we have been wondering how to amplify muted voices in the world so those who have been forced to silence could express themselves if they wanted to. We evolved the word amplify to connect to make sure our work would not add to the current cacophony. I love the feeling of chosen silence you suggest to embrace. Chosen silence is likely to be the best practice to truly listen to muted voices in ourselves and in others.

I sense the energy and strength of holding silence visibly and collectively. This gives our silence a further depth, a deeper purpose.

Thank you for the idea. Thank you for the beautiful invitation and platform. I will be in silence with you regularly, though most likely not on the Sundays (I have 3 young children). I wonder if the idea of keeping a chain of silence at our respective times could be explored? Maybe we could sign up to hold silence at different times for each other and for the world? I would love to know that even when I am loud and vocal, others are in a chosen silence for me and the world, to stay connected to this silence and community at all times…

With love…..Laure

This is a deep heartfelt request. On Tuesday this week, Kacy died. She was 3 years old. The tragedy of child abuse continues in our community. I have an idea that came from something my friend, Cher Everhart, said. I posted the article about Kacy’s death on FaceBook and Cher’s response was “Heartbreaking & speechless, how could this happen without someone hearing something. It’s only because when I was young, our neighbor kid was abused. My family could hear it. Mom would call the police and they would take their time getting there. If they couldn’t “hear” anything. They did nothing. Then the next day, the neighbor kid would come over to our home, batter and bruised. But no one would do anything because they refused to “hear” it. Even as a young kid, I could not understand why adults let this happen to her.”

Cher’s comment has spurred me and CAN to action. On Monday at 4:00 pm we will gather in Vogel Plaza and beginning at 4:15 pm we will begin listening. This means we will be silent for one hour from 4:15 to 5:15. We will be actively listening to what’s going on around us. The effort will be to increase our ability to stop, to listen, to notice what is going on around us. Maybe by just listening, others will too and we can only imagine what can change.

Please join me, members of CAN and anyone willing to come, to stand, to listen. Wear blue, any shade. Blue is the color of Child Abuse Awareness month and the color for Foster Care Awareness month. Please come, please bring your friends. Please listen. See you at Vogel Plaza Monday, June 21 at 4:00 pm.

 I just had to tell you how happy I am that she lent me Anne LeClaire’s book which also had the Invitation to Silence letter in it.   She knew it would be just the thing for me !     and she was right, I immediately pegged a day of silence for myself, and warned my whole family of what I was doing, and ofcourse couldn’t wait for that day to come, it was like knowing I was going on holiday!     Then the day came and it was as if I was on holiday, I have never felt such relief as I did that day of not having to talk to anyone, answer the phone etc etc.     I did go into the Secret Garden as Anne describes in the book ( I know the movie well)    and I also found it overgrown and full of “weeds” etc. and so had wonderful day weeding, exploring and just revelling in the solitude and peace of it. I will definitely be having silent days on a regular basis and look forward to spending time  and tending my “Inner Garden”