February 1989 (Vol. II, No. 2)

When disaster comes unexpected, we discover the strength of our underpinning faith. Such was the destiny of a mother in Armenia:

When the earthquake hit, a mother and her child plummeted several stories as their apartment building crumpled. They were trapped in a tiny space in the basement barely able to move amidst the rubble. Dressed only in her slip and pinned down by beams, the mother --- thrust into a long, uninterrupted silence -- comforted her child for eight days and eight nights with her love. When the child had finished one jar of jam that had landed near them, she kept begging her mother for something to drink. Realizing they would both die without water, the mother scratched as far she could reach and found a shard of glass. One by one, she cut her fingers and hour by hour, she fed her child her own life blood. One the ninth day the rescuers found them. Out of the cold, dark prison, they were raised to new life.

In this one microcosmic miracle, the love & faith of the mother, the trust of the child, the prayers of the family, friends and neighbors, the concerned commitment of the rescuers, the silent contemplatives of the world were all united heart-to-heart by macrocosmic Love. "The secret of spirituality is the uncovering of this kind of life exchange, this very real and very visible interconnectedness that makes all of creation ONE."

Those in love have a secret. Their gestures and voices and eyes communicate it. They rush to "wake the dawn" and warn the world of love's peculiar logic. They speak a new language and walk with new grace. They learn the dance of life, listening and opening, the rhythm of intimacy and ecstasy. They reverberate with the cosmos as it breathes in unison and blends the sources of silence and sound.