From Here..to..Hear

This morning, as I do most mornings, I’m sitting on the white couch, writing in my journal and Scout is curled up next to me sound asleep.

I was thinking about sound and writing down what I heard. I quieted myself and began to listen more intently.

The back door was open and I could hear a gentle breeze blowing through the trees. When the wind whispers it brushes against the wind chimes, making beautiful, soft music.

While listening, I heard one bird calling to another, the hum of the refrigerator and the sound of my stomach gurgling. There was a faint sound of an airplane high overhead.

The the revving noise of a motorcycle going by diverted my attention as it zoomed by, and then I could hear it way off in the distance go into full throttle and barrel down the highway.

We don't take enough time (or any) to sit and listen.

Sometimes, a momentary silence catches us off guard. You know one of those kinds where you’re sitting still, and you don’t hear a thing? And it feels weird. Silence sometimes is welcome and I suppose sometimes it is so loud that it's ironically deafening.

We need quiet, though. Being still in the silence is important. We also need to listen.

When we invite the silence in, we are able to hear what we might not have heard or we might not have otherwise processed.

We listen not to analyze, but to bring ourselves into the present and appreciate what we hear and also the fact that we can hear at all.

From here..to..hear