Cheltenham was cancelled one day this week and there was consternation – no, not among the horses and jockeys who were spared running through the storm but among the punters who had to sit still for a whole day! 

What is this fear we have of silence, of just having to sit still and live with ourselves alone?

This week is called the week of Great Silence. There is only one voice you and I have to hear this week. Yet it is a voice I fear. Even though I love the idea of spring cleaning, I still claw back, as in childhood, the outgrown possessions I no longer need, the drawer full of distractions, impossible dreams,  – in short anything which will drive out a silence which would leave me alone with the Alone.

I hear the haunting melody of a mantra which persists and persists until it becomes a gentle command: Be still and know, that I am God…be still and know....    Well, if not this week, then when?