Greenleaf writes: One must not be afraid of a little silence. …It is often a devastating question to ask oneself – but it is sometimes important to ask it – “In saying what I have in mind will I really improve on the silence?”
…The ability to withdraw and reorient oneself, if only for a moment, presumes that one has learned the art of systematic neglect, to sort out the more important from the less important – and the important from the urgent – and attend to the more important…
Pacing oneself by appropriate withdrawal is one of the best approaches to making optimal use of one’s resources. The servant-as-leader must constantly ask: How can I use myself to serve best?
Each of the great wisdom figures and wisdom traditions speaks of the importance of silence – avoiding the external noise and quieting our internal noise. Silence is a major tap root that nurtures the hungry heart. Today, more than ever before in history, we humans are moment-to-moment being washed over by a tsunami of noise (external noise and internal noise). Silence does not bring us comfort – or so it seems – sadly (or is it ‘tragically’?) we become more and more anxious when we experience ‘silence’. Greenleaf’s question continues to challenge me, support me, and indict me for too often the silence is not improved when I speak. When do you, gentle reader, seek ‘silence’? How often do you seek ‘silence’? When you speak, is the silence improved?
Silence and Withdrawal are intertwining tap roots for me. ‘Silent-Withdrawal’ is a tap-root that I, again too often, fail to nurture so that they can nurture me. When I do take the time to nurture these tap roots and when I then take the time to allow them to nurture me I find that I am able to develop more fully ‘the art of systematic neglect.’ More importantly, for me, I am able to withdraw from the external noise and to quiet my noisy heart (the internal noise that is more distracting and debilitating than the external noise).
I know that ‘pacing’ is crucial – and, again, knowing this does not mean that practice will easily follow. When I choose ‘Silence & Withdrawal’ and integrate these with ‘pacing’ I find that I shoot less from the lip, I find that I am less likely to be distracted by noise (especially by my noisy heart), and that I am more likely to be able to separate the important from the urgent – and respond to the important rather than simply react to the urgent.
For me, one of the internal noises that hinders my pacing rooted in ‘silence-withdrawal’ is anxiety. When I ‘give-in’ to my anxiety I am reactive not response-able. My pacing dramatically increases as I shun silence-withdrawal in favor of ‘fixing’ and ‘doing.’
Greenleaf does provide us three tap-roots: Silence, Withdrawal and Pacing. The rest is up to us.
Francis Bacon noted that: Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.
Servant As Leader 