“There is no power on earth that can withstand the united cooperation on spiritual levels of men and women of goodwill everywhere. It is for this reason that the continued and widespread observance of the Silent Minute is of such vital importance in the interest of human welfare.” ~ Major Wellesley Tudor Pole
I received this quotation via email from a friend asking me to join in “one minute for peace” each night at 10:00 pm. My friend shared this background:
The original Big Ben Silent Minute was a peace prayer initiated by Wellesley Tudor Pole, a major in the British Army and the founder of the Chalice Well Trust, Glastonbury.
During World War II, all over Britain and the Commonwealth, millions of people joined together every evening at 9.00pm just before the news, to the chimes of Big Ben, to pray for peace.
In the dark days of war the Silent Minute became a vast network of Light and Hope in the hearts of all people of goodwill. It had the blessing of King George VI, Sir Winston Churchill and his Parliamentary Cabinet, and it was also recognized by the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The Silent Minute was observed on land, at sea, on the battlefields, in air raid shelters and in hospitals. With Churchill’s support the BBC, on Sunday, 10th November 1940, began to play the chimes of Big Ben on the radio as a signal for the Silent Minute to begin.
I did not say that if one silent minute is good, why limit it to that. Instead, I responded by sharing with her that my weekly group meditation times are Sunday 11-12; Tuesday 9-9:30 am and 2-3 pm. I did not say that I also meditate each morning, and have done an hour of yoga daily since the pandemic caused people to “stay safe at home” and the YMCA was closed.
Admittedly, this takes me more than one silent minute, but you can start where you are…
I have developed a lifetime of great appreciation for introspection. Appreciation expanded to an even greater degree while listening to a Sounds True Podcast with Jennie Lee, a yoga therapist. Jennie began working regularly with open-ended questions such as “What soul quality do I need to awaken more?” and “Am I listening to what life is asking of me right now?” Her new book Spark Change identifies 108 “provocative questions for spiritual evolution” including a powerful question to help understand hard-to-change habits: “What is the inner need my worst habit fulfills?”
A brief text exchange was an amazing reminder of how truly connected and intimately sacred every silent moment is. I will share the tale in story fashion, including a few links from the Sacred Stories archives. (You can sign up to receive Sacred Stories as they post.)
The first is the last (you may have heard that before…) and is titled Rocking Chair. It is a tender story of a friend who gave away an old rocking chair. This was not just any old rocking chair. This rocking chair is filled with a mother’s precious memories….
A few moments after I posted “Rocking Chair” I received a text message from another friend who was feeling some remorse over “a few verbal spars” with her daughter that had taken place the day before. I sent the link about the rocking chair, and discovered that his friend — a loyal reader of the Beyond Mastery Newsletter — had not followed Sacred Stories.
You see, I had taken the rocking chair three years earlier, knowing some day it would be wanted. Unable to be with her son on his birthday and with her mother’s visit from Europe cancelled because of the pandemic, that day came.
Next, I sent a link to another Sacred Story, this one titled Electric Heater, about this same woman who had been a refugee with a baby less than a year old, when she had had to flee from the Communists when they invaded Poland.
The last Sacred Story link I sent was titled Lord’s Supper and this one was her own story about her grandfather. Two times his painting of the Lord’s Supper had fallen off the wall face down as a message of the death of a family member.
My attention landed on the closing lines of these two Sacred Story posts I had shared that morning with my friend:
What once seemed so strange, is now seen as evidence spirit and matter are not really separate at all.
Today they are very successful living in the U.S. in a 3,500 square foot home – but they remember this evidence that our needs can be met in extraordinary ways.
Our needs can be met in extraordinary ways: spirit and matter are not separate at all, and there is no power on earth that can withstand the united cooperation on spiritual levels of men and women of goodwill everywhere.