When the Gods are Silent

There are moments in every life when the world goes quiet.
When prayer echoes back as an empty chamber.
When the signs we once trusted fade into stillness.
When the gods — or fate, or meaning, or purpose — seem to withdraw.

This is not abandonment.
It is initiation.

The old stories tell us this plainly:
The hero is never forged in the presence of the divine,
but in their absence.

Odysseus had no guidance on the open sea.
Arjuna stood alone on the field before the chariot discourse began.
Beowulf faced the dragon without his companions.
Even Christ walked into the desert in silence.

The world falls away so that what is within you may awaken.

Silence is not the gods turning their backs.
It is the moment they watch to see who you will become
when no one is there to carry you.

If you are in that quiet place now —
hold fast.
The trial is real.
But so is what waits on the far side of it.

Endure.
Rise.
Become.