“There is a crack in everything, because this is the realm of the crack, the realm of failure, the realm of death, and unless we affirm failure and death, we’re going to be very unhappy.” Leonard Cohen (1993)

The above quote from Leonard Cohen is an absolute favorite of mine. It is of this realm that I write. It is all I know as an ego, a supposed separate self. I know that is not my true nature, but nevertheless, it is the realm where we are born and die.

I am not a popular writer because I do not hand out enlightenment certificates. I do not say I can wake anyone up. I tell my truth repetitively and honestly. I make people resonate with hidden pains in order to expose the wounds to the light.

I know of no other way to write. I am glad the few suffering souls that read me occasionally let me know.

I know a good bit about silence, having put in many years just sitting and waiting on God. He doesn’t appear, of course. But He sends His Silence to my longing heart. And that is more than enough for me. It is the manna I can understand and grow from.

Life is a process of being beaten on the threshing floor. Social media is not the place for this to get done, for it is a pseudo-self that arrives online and ready to be told it can wake up.

People are antsy, restless, driven and despairing. They are looking for quick fixes that do not exist. I should know. I am describing myself, for we are all alike. No one has it made. The rich and famous have more than their share of despair. No one gets out alive.

And yet the most magnificent thing anyone can give is their time and deep attention to what remains a puzzlement. Just sit with the question “Why” with a longing to know God. He will send silence in His stead.

I have no idea who God is and I think He is happy about that, for ideas do not last forever. Silence opens the door into peace, wonder and surrender. It carves space into the god of your own ego until it grows thinner and thinner. One day, God willing, it will disappear altogether.

Vicki Woodyard