Quiet…

One of my favorite words because it brings to mind other favorite words, thoughts, ideas…sounds of silence, silent night…heavenly peace. But most important; what quiet brings to mind is what the mind needs most…

Quiet…

Interestingly, it was the one word request of the world from the Pope recently.

Good morning dear friend. I have an image in my mind of the old TV commercial from the seventies of the old Indian shedding a tear looking out over a littered America. It’s kind of interesting to think of those days compared to where we are now. Quite honestly, I don’t remember litter being such an issue that someone had to make a commercial about it. But I know this; the noise that we litter our minds with today is infinitely more destructive than the candy wrapper we tossed out on Route 66! I think the Pope is on to something!

You may walk into your house to find it surprisingly quiet only to discover your 14-year-old daughter Facebooking on her laptop, while texting a friend with iPod streaming in her ear. At least you and I remember the nourishing taste of the quiet they will never know. In fact, watch the fidgety anxiety set in the next time there’s a power outage! The sad horror of this would bring a thousand old Indians to tears. We are drowning ourselves in noise…and it’s really a bit worse than that.

There are two energies at war with each other today; individual energy versus group energy. Quiet feeds the individual. The noise, whether via Facebook or Smart Phone, consumes the individual to feed the group! We are literally giving ourselves away…while we are connected 24/7!

I saw a comment on a blog post recently that resonated deeply within me. Someone had emailed Ann Barnhardt asking her to “friend” them on Facebook. She replied that she does not do Facebook because “it is evil”! You are surrendering your personal information and id-entity to an entity you know nothing about. And it cheapens a word we used to hold sacred…friend! I guess that we would all have to self-assess to determine whether or not all of this noise and connection has strengthened or weakened the quality of our relationships with one another. But do any of us really need to question the fact that connecting out there requires disconnecting in here?

And here’s the million dollar question. If we were to all suddenly realize our folly and eliminate the noise out there so we could listen to the quiet in here, what impact would that have on the quality of our relationships inside and out? Of course we know the answer…

And if you but listen in the stillness of the night you shall hear them saying in silence, “Our God, who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth.” – Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

http://shutupnsing.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/the-sunday-morning-tune...