THE SOUND OF SILENCE
Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019
Bombarded by technology, by people, by circumstance – hasn’t changed much. It has changed massively, intrusively, and it overwhelms our senses and our sensibility. Distractions are everywhere, all the time. We don’t need to turn on a device, search anything, or tune in to TV or radio, blogs, podcasts, streaming, searching somebody’s engine …
In an instant, we can create silence – noise-cancelling headphones, mute everything, or turn it all off. Entirely off, completely silent. We can even unplug everything – we won’t hear the hum, the whir, the fan, or the compressor on the fridge. In that silence, we can turn off the lights, turn off the phone – and sit in silence once known as normal. Today that healthy normal requires herculean effort to create. Sure, we can drive to a forest or mountain valley, but for urban-dwelling, there is little reprieve from the cacophony of people and devices. We cannot quickly or easily silence them all, but it would nice sometime to try the total equivalent of a power outage for a sustained time to see how it feels.
My focused attention and my intention stay connected for short periods of concentration until they unhook. I am so glad that ADHD hadn’t been invented when I was a child, or I would have been drug-numbed into mediocrity long ago.
My thoughts run all over the place, not like water on a hillside – more like pebbles dropped on top of the hill; they land, some roll this way, some roll that … some don’t roll, ever.
Some thoughts die because I forget, get distracted by something else, or run down some other rabbit-hole of curiosity. This proves both wonderful and ‘challenging to manage’ in the world of work, business, and social relationships.
I’m happy to be. So glad to be me, in spite of myself. And, as you’ve read above, the mind wanders around unchecked.
All the time ….
Reader feedback:
I think, therefore I am. Five words, a seminal concept so succinctly expressed. Here’s another one; I came, I saw, I conquered. Originally expressed by one of histories great warriors and statesmen but applicable to our passage through our life and times as well. If you don’t see what’s around you, or inside yourself, you cannot overcome the obstacles or slay your own demons. We all have them. Finally there is “Lest we forget…” usually a reference to the fallen. We are wise to remind ourselves and others of our own past struggles even as they continue day to day so we don’t forget what we were and who we have now become, and ultimately find ourselves, DM, Okotoks, AB/Mexico
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