"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it." - Henry Ford"Not until we have become humble and teachable . . . distrusting our own thoughts, and willing to have our minds turned upside down, can divine wisdom become ours." - J. I. Packer
It never fails to surprise me when the trees call and the mountains smile and the grass dances . . . and I finally notice. How long has that been going on? Is beauty still showing off despite my indifference? How many years has nature gazed at mankind and our constant movement to and fro?
Crying out for us to slow down and be grateful for the now. I don't know how getting away to somewhere quiet works on you but I'm betting that it's presimilarliar for all of us. Contemplation works similar to gravity as it enforces its will on a falling leaf. Slowly, but with unending purpose, it calls me to absorb and feel in old ways long forgotten. To think in ways I don't normally think. To appreciate the colors and smells anew. And each time this encounter works its magic on my mind and soul, I vow never to forget the now, the engulfing all absorbing moment that is right now . . .
Yet I do.
I fear that the cost of the silence necessary to render these moments powerful and maybe even life-changing is growing to high. And in some cases we don't miss what we've never had. Is it too much trouble to turn off the sounds for even a few moments that clamor for our attention? Too much change? What if we missed what they're saying? The latest quote, the newest riff, the juiciest gossip. Civilization today calls for us to be plugged in, be involved, to be current and informed. Yet are we simply mimics for the sounds that engulf our thoughts? Is there any room left for ourselves in who we are? Or are we Hollywood's blank canvas? Billboard's? Wall Street's?
"Most people don't live aware lives. They live mechanical lives, mechanical thoughts -- generally somebody else's -- mechanical emotions, mechanical actions." - Anthony de Mello
"Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves." - Thomas Carlyle
Maybe we're missing the greatest sound of them all . . .
