rushing into silence

I have been reading David Runcorn - Spirituality Workbook this week. It has been set as a text for the Spirituality sessions at Trinity this year. I am finding it very useful and it has got me thinking about silence. Each week, on a Wednesday, at Trinity we spend an hour in silence. The whole community is encouraged to spend this time reflecting and meditating. It is hard to stop doing what the community spends most of its time doing...that is rushing about: meeting, reading, going to lectures, debating, laughing, eating, crying, but most significantly being together. It is difficult to be physically alone at Trinity - shutting yourself off and trying to find silence is very difficult here.

You know when you can't stop laughing at something when you know you really need to get a grip, but you really can’t? Well that's what it is like to try to be in silence here...you are so carried away with being in a rush that it almost is uncontrollable, being still and quiet doesn't seem to happen easily.

So, what to do? Give up? Sit trying not to rush but then getting that uncontrollable urge and having to internally be very stern with yourself? I don't really know. At the moment I am just giving it a go. It is not the silence that is difficult it is the being still, being still and knowing God (Psalm 46:10).