In the Sound of Sheer Silence

In a motel room and awake before dawn, having showered and shaved, I sat in a chair in the dark for some while. The rush of the a/c unit’s fan pushed air noisily about the small room. The abrupt disturbance of a door opening and closing across the hall shook even the door to my room. Outside a fire engine blazed by with din of siren and lights. Then racket of fan and door and fire engine went quiet. Utterly. In the sound of sheer silence, God, intimately present: questioning, challenging, assuring.