I am good at words, but I like silence even better. I write to lead you there. I don’t want you to think but to understand without words.

I sold one-liners to comedians and had a few in The Readers Digest. I wanted to be the next Erma Bombeck but sorrow ruled that out. Instead I became fascinated with the concept of awakening. I entered the Work of Vernon Howard and stayed there for seven years, until his death.

My husband got cancer and I became his only caregiver. At that time, the grief overshadowed the Work; I found I could not do it when I was lost in sorrow.

Now it has been 15 years since his death and I have become the Work, so to speak. I am no longer in it but it is in me.

I write brief essays only to lead people to their own aha moment. That time when they fall silent. It is in that silence that we live and move and have our being.

Yes, most people find what I write to be too simple. They go in search of complicated theories when their own conscious silence would trump theories every time.

I want you to rest in my words. They are not important. They are just energy signals sent from one heart to another. The mind rests in the heart and peace is at hand.

Vicki Woodyard