Turn, Turn, Turn

by Martha Spong | published on Feb 21, 2026

For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to keep silent and a time to speak. -Ecclesiastes 3:1 & 7b (NRSV)

I have a conflicted relationship with silence that is closely related to my avoidance of doing one thing at a time. Talking on the phone while driving, listening to a podcast while sorting laundry, watching (or listening to) TV while cooking are just a few examples. Over a lifetime, those habits testify to frantic attempts at distraction—from loneliness, anxiety, grief, even depression. The thoughts in my head felt like unpleasant or even unsafe companions.  

Sometimes they still feel like that.  

And while I am fairly sure that the author of Ecclesiastes was talking about something else (perhaps measuring when you use your words wisely), so certain in fact that I tried to talk myself out of writing this, I keep coming back to what being silent offers to and demands of my life. Living in my monkey mind keeps things at the surface level; it prevents going deeper.  

In seasons of particular anxiety, I have spun harder and harder, multi-tasking to an impossible degree. In the most recent of those, I came up against one activity I could not do at the same time as another: Wordle. To focus on the game, I need silence that allows me to think clearly.  

Perhaps I am not so far away from the intent of Ecclesiastes after all.  

For everything there is a season: a time to engage in coping strategies, and a time to face the reality of what we think and feel, even and especially when we don’t want to sit with it.  

Prayer
Holy One, when distractions keep us away from you, give us courage to turn down the noise. Amen.

Martha Spong About the Author
Martha Spong is a UCC pastor, a clergy coach, and editor of The Words of Her Mouth: Psalms for the Struggle, from The Pilgrim Press.