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NO THANKS, I AM JUST LISTENING
Thursday Sept. 8, 2016
If they knew what I was capable of doing!
Doing, providing, accomplishing – wouldn’t they say – “yes, Mark, please help me?”
Often, I find what I AM LOOKING FOR, only to realize someone was shoveling that idea or information my way all along – but I filtered it out. Can I/we help anyone, or are we constantly, like some store clerk asking, ‘Can I help you?’ Or, ‘hey, I CAN help you’ ? Because we’ll just say ‘no thanks, I’m just looking’.
Frenetic ‘sending’ world, bombarding, marketing. I’m a big-time sender, so I get it – I’m part of this problem I struggle with. How can we screen-out unwanted, unneeded, unworthy – getting back to basic clarity in our lives?
Can I solve it – for anyone?
Or at least for me?
Help: seeking peace, quiet, calm – easy, turn off devices with screens, switch to candles, cancel newspapers, don’t answer door-knocks – get one of those masks to keep light out when sleeping. Read more books, become completely insular. Sleep better. Write more – perhaps an ‘Emily Dickenson’ phase – cloistered away, writing till I die, published posthumously …
Small refinements? Yes. More effective outcomes? Not so much.
Turning on my TV, opening my in-box or venturing into newsfeeds and newspapers – bombarded still, always.
How do we keep all that extraneous noise out, yet allow important messages to come through without resorting to wilderness (brrr) winter camping?
My point?
We build defenses, resist ‘incoming’ of every kind because, unless it comes from branded or trusted familiar sources – suspicious of all time-wasting … completely oblivious when someone has something valuable to offer us.
And that outstretched hand of friendship?
We’ll likely miss that one too.
I’m not advocating that we live in wilderness caves or become monks vowed to silence. But something like that.
Trying out my newest toy – ‘Bose35 noise cancelling headphones’, I’ll be fully operational sometime today. Wow … listening to someone on the phone, listening to music, or listening to the sound of silence (my apology to Simon & Garfunkel).
Not complete control of my environment but a better way, I hope, to separate noise and distractions from concentration and focus …
I’ll report from time to time – should be an adventure in life/work style. I’ll miss the calls I want to miss, manage my quiet time better, isolate myself selectively from technology – without isolating myself from life.
Awash in sea of interruptions and unwanted cacophony – I’m going to Bose my way out …
written / published from Calgary, AB
morning walk with Gusta: 12C/54F, not warm but a welcome ‘warmer today’ – blustery breeze and a sky in turmoil, looking more art than weather, Gusta did her business promptly (no doubt thinking, because we are late it won’t be a long walk!) but I surprised her with a long stroll … just the wind and traffic hum, very peaceful.
Reader feedback:
MILES APART
Bull’s-eye Mark ! Fantastic thoughts. Have a great day!, EB, Calgary, AB
Powerful Mark! MK, Calgary, AB
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