Ryan leaves Pelosi challenge out of today's talk to speak of power of silence

GIRARD

Tim Ryan put aside the U.S. Rep. of Howland, D-13th designation and pitched something completely non-political to those who gathered Tuesday for the 31st annual Interfaith Mayors’ Prayer Breakfast, sponsored by Mahoning Valley Association of Churches.

He left the hubbub and sound bites concerning his challenge to Nancy Pelosi as House minority leader and asked the 175 or so in attendance at Mahoning Country Club, 710 E. Liberty St., to observe some quiet time by engaging in a basic mindfulness practice.

“Quiet time is what we need more of,” Ryan said. “There’s so much noise now .. around us and even in our heads.”

Ryan said he witnessed “quiet time” as a boy. He would bicycle to his grandparents house a few blocks from his home in Niles and often find them praying the rosary. “That meditation time stuck with me,” he said.

As a student athlete at John F. Kennedy High School in Warren, Ryan said people he admired all shared a practice of prayer and silence. When he was writing “A Mindful Nation: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Reduce Stress, Improve Performance and Recapture the American Spirit,” he realized that important people in his life had something in common. “Great teachers, coaches and people had a foundation of who they are,” Ryan said, noting they spent time in quiet prayer and meditation. “They were grounded in God,” he noted.

Read more about the practice and the event in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.