Sacred silence.......Saturday, Starbuck and I took our earlier than usual morning walk. The world in Marble was a different place. There was two inches of fresh snow, blue skies directly above, but every single mountain peak around us was blanketed with clouds.....just the peaks. I marveled at this new mood that our world here had taken on.

It was a bit chilly because the sun had not completely popped up above the 10,000-13,000 ft peaks. As Starbuck and I got to our usual turnaround point, the sun made its grand appearance above the mountains. It immediately warmed up and I decided that we would continue by taking the winding curves that meander through the aspens up the old Ski Lodge Road. The sun turned the multifaceted snowflakes into shimmering crystals like a carpet of diamonds. The aspens' white bark with their dark eyes (that is actually what the dark areas on the bark are called) seemed to reach toward the sun.

We rounded a curve with a perfect view of the mountain, White House. Where the plows had pushed the snow back, there was a sort of chair formed in the snow complete with a seat and back. I sat on it soaking in the sun and marveling at White House. I watched as the last vestiges of cloud cover lifted completely off the peak revealing a magnificent view of the "snow" white mountain literally shimmering in the sun. I was so taken with what I was seeing that I thought I should praise God. I began with, "How Majestic is Your Name...." and suddenly I stopped. The words were interupting the moment and I felt as if God was saying Shhhh.

As I sat in the stillness, it felt as if Jesus sat beside me in our chairs of snow. The Presence was so strong that I whispered very softly, "hello." Yet I had the feeling that even that whisper was too much noise. Words were not needed. Did not my Companion know every thought, every prayer, every desire of my heart? Did not my Lord know me from my mother's womb? So I sat in a sacred silence.......a place where words were not needed.

".....Mary who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said....... 'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her." Jesus Christ