March 2025 (Vol. XXXVIII, No. 3)

Dear Friends ~ My window looks over the neighbors' rooftops to the poplars, box elders, oaks, pines of the woods that rim our village. The morning is gray, slashed with bitter rain. The harsh winds of a March storm toss the tree limbs hither and yon. Their tender buds must be clinging with all their tiny might. The chaotic flailing mirrors these times and the thrashing of both culture and nature. It feels, it is, dire. But the storm is not everything. Though the gusts swirl mightily, there is within each of us a holy flame that steadfastly illumines our belonging to the living world, our place in a vast and tenacious communion of all that is Holy. In this mothering warmth, we are each wrapped in the loving embrace of the Divine. Here we find Sophia, Holy Wisdom, in which to steady ourselves against the storm. Sophia is being called forth by our collective longing, by our gathered yearning, by what we have carried in our bones all along. The poets and soul-criers know that life protects and renews itself in astonishing ways, and that fierce and buffeting winds will kindle the ember and awaken the fiery resources of the human soul. Sophia's time has come. ~ Lindsay

Dear friends, these are tumultuous and complicated times, in which "despair and possibility dance in the same holy darkness". This is when the Friends of Silence Letter becomes essential, quietly reminding you that the storm is not everything. The Letter is made possible solely by your gifts. Please keep this necessary resource coming to you and all whom you love and use this link to contribute what you can.
With gratitude, Lindsay