Holy Tinnitus

I have tinnitus – ringing of the ears. I usually am not aware of the high-pitched hum at the upper end of the audible range until all is quiet. Like when I am lie down for the night, or am by myself in the snow-covered woods, far from the noise of our frenetic life. Snow is a great insulator. It dampens all other sounds except for that incessant ringing that I had forgotten about until I became still. It was there all along, but my consciousness was preoccupied with other sounds.

The presence of God is like that. A holy tinnitus. A frequency so high and so constant one doesn’t even think about it until everything else is quiet.

I try to bring my consciousness to that frequency more and more regularly these days. Can I hear the divine ringing on the bus ride to work, in the conversation with a friend, when vacuuming the carpet or responding to an email? I am trying to become mindful of my holy tinnitus, that uninterrupted musical note in the upper ranges of my spiritual hearing. The universal presence of Creator with all, in all and through all.