Be Silent, My Soul

📝Reflection

If Psalm 62:1 sang of silence, here the poet speaks directly to his own soul: "be silent." This is a voice soothing oneself. The heart is often like a horse bolting with no rider. What it needs then is not a bigger whip but one low, firm word: it is all right, you may stop now. I long only drove my heart harder. But once I said to myself "let us quiet down now," that word settled me more than any comfort. Knowing how to soothe one's own heart was also a grown-up's skill.