Take time for communion with God

My favorite time of day is dusk, when the light outside is softer and the sun is leaving hairpin wisps of neon pink and orange in the sky.

The breeze blows the air cooler and even the birds, insects and tree frogs seem to feel freer and unburdened.

This time of day allows me to be free with God to dream, unburden myself, and feel his presence. I can just be, and it's a glorious time to be part of his creation.

A piece of one of Thomas Merton's writings on just being as the deepest intimacy with God has stuck with me since I read it: "The deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words, and it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity. We discover an older unity. My dear, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are."

I love these thoughts because they take the pressure and focus off me and put it onto God, allowing me to place myself before him and just be, contemplating the mystery of him, the mystery of me, the mystery of unity.

These words allow me to look to God to ask who I am and who he is, and they provide a space for my yearning for him. They affirm that maybe some of the most beautiful prayers are the ones where, at a loss for words, we bring ourselves silent to God. Not that God doesn't love to hear our words, thoughts and desires, but our silence shows our utter poverty and need for God and our trust in his deep, intimate understanding of us, our heart, our needs and wants.

No matter where we are, how we feel, or what we have or haven't done, let's take moments everyday to worship our Father by simply being, wordlessly immersing ourselves in the moment our God is present in, all around and within us.

We have a wilderness within us that is exciting and daring. One of the only unexplored territories left on Earth is that of your heart, and you are the only one who can explore it.

Let's take moments to explore our hearts and recognize our being as something good, holy and sacred, a mystery God dwells in and delights in manifesting himself through.

Let's accept ourselves as we are the way God does, and yearn to recognize our unity with ourself, God and every person in the world, ask for this, and be filled with wonder and transformation as we discover it.

Mia Pohlman is a Perryville, Mo., native studying at Truman State University. She loves performing, God and the color purple -- not necessarily in that order.