A couple of people recommended Kent Nerburn’s Small Graces: the Quiet Gifts of Everyday Life to me, and I have now read it.
Nerburn has collected a number of meditations under the headings of “awakenings,” “passages,” “gatherings,” and “departures.” In each meditation, Nerburn looks at a common situation – a walk in the woods, greeting a neighbor, viewing dawn, etc. – and invites the reader to pause and consider the quiet – the silence – of the moment and recognize it as a grace.
Through his studies and other writings, Nerburn comes to the subject to a large degree from a Native American perspective. Yet, he has selected quotes from other cultures as well.
Nerburn makes an important point in our world of “on-demand” and “have it you way” and “instantaneous gratification” – there is grace to be found – an overwhelming awe to be felt in stopping and appreciating the space between movement. Even in Judaism and Christianity, we have the text, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).
Nerburn’s work will not be for everyone, because he stops short of finding the One Personal God in the silence. Even so, his work is worth reading to cause us to remember that if we only live in the noise, we are not experiencing the fullness of life that God gives to us.
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