We don’t always have to look into the distant past to feel nostalgic. Today I was sweating under an intense summer sun heralding the still emerging season, and reading the headlines of protests and counter-protests, division and contempt. I began to feel nostalgic for a time only a few months ago.
After a long trek on snowshoes, we had arrived at the isolated cabin for a few days off the grid. I was met the first morning with a silence that some might find deafening. As the first one awake, I wholly enjoyed a solo morning snowshoe through the trees, their branches bowing under the weight of the overnight snow. Sitting on the deck after my return, I found the silence I had been longing for, and could finally truly hear again.
I am lucky to live in a state that offers so many opportunities to physically step away from the noise. The silence offered by a buffer of snow or a gurgling creek that so eloquently hides the sounds of other hikers is a gift that I am always grateful for.
It is in these moments of silence that I am encouraged to be with my own thoughts. I can more easily discern the quiet voices coming from within – from my heart and from my soul. The silence also lets me find the echo of conversations that I have had with others so that I can more clearly understand what they were saying beneath the words that they were using.
As I come back to the heat of today, as well as the heat of the current situation, I am struck by how noisy the world has become in such a short time. My respite a few months ago was an escape from the normal level of noise in a world that does not exist anymore. That world was full of busy-ness and activities, and a steady assault of social media and uninvited pressures.
The world that we’ve been experiencing for the last few weeks has been an ever-growing cacophony of voices increasing in volume in an effort to be heard above others, all while under the shadow of a pandemic.
Yet within that din there are important voices to be heard. The fact that we are discussing racism and shedding light on things that we too easily pushed to the background just months ago is a huge step. There are many needs and desires and challenges being expressed from all corners. It will take quite a bit of work to find the truths within the commotion so that we can hear what is actually being said and chart the best course.
Since I cannot escape as easily to the silence in the current environment, I have to work to find the quietness inside myself. Within that stillness I hope to be able to learn and grow again. To that end, I am curious…
What do you do to turn down the noise and listen intently for the truths below the surface?
How do you speak up without becoming lost in the cacophony so that the weight of your own voice is heard?