Let us take a moment to settle into the silence.

Hear and feel your quiet breathing.
Hear and feel the quiet of this room
and this community of quiet people.

As we sit in the quiet, feel the life that stretches between us,
that fills this room.
Feel the opening of all the windows of our beings,
and the full out-stretching of our spirits,
As we reach outward to the life around us,
beyond this room,
throughout all creation.

For this life—
for the freedom we have to shape and pursue our lives—
we are grateful and rejoice.

Amen.