The first step is silence....23 Days until Christmas

The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others.
Solomon Ibn Gabriol

It is in silence that you discover the truth of interconnectedness, and the priceless jewel of love.
It is the silence that unfolds naturally when you see that all the noise in your mind—the mental chatter—is entirely self-generated. When you see that it is your own story, your own incessant thinking that is getting in the way of your deeper peace and well-being, that seeing brings everything to a stop. Then the exquisite fragrance of stillness, of silence, reveals itself.

More important than outward silence is inward silence, and that is not so easily available to us.  Just as when we look outside and see a vast universe interwoven with activities and quietude, our internal world has both action and silence.  When we look into the mind we ordinarily see only the surface phenomena-thoughts, feelings, and desires. We must mak additional effort to experience that inner silence, the silence of the mind.