Catching a break

Y'all? Just got a little gift from me, and I bet you don't even know it.

You're welcome for me not posting the post I just wrote about stupid jackhammering work...AGAIN. There are far more interesting things to do with your blogreading time than absorb MY irritation at shit that doesn't matter, not in the least, even to ME, that's how small the shit is. So, bye-bye, self-indulgent whiny stinky pooply post that isn't any more! C U L8TR, MNTL MSTRB8TR!

Righteo. Onward then.

Been undergoing an exercise recently in which efforts are made to dial down the noise. Turn off the radio. Turn off the teevee. Dampen the visual stimulation, the aural pollution. Throw out the dross and detritus of nonessentials. Much like a good closet-cleaning, evicting the 'noise' is intended to simply and focus life. So, last week I started with this clearing-out. My goodness, the difference. With no radio on, the drive to and from work is ever so much more.....long. There's time to think. It's unusual, the thinking. There's time to meditate on issues, to have conversations with my better self (or with any of the other voices that live in my head), to plan. Time to pray, sing, make up stories, notice stuff. Time that's not spent listening to news about things over which I have no control and that do not need to be monitored on a daily basis.

Time - Can't be bought for love or money, but can be experienced more fully when it's just a little more quiet. Much like how last year I vowed that 2008 would be the Year of Doing Only One Thing at a Time, perhaps 2009 will be the Year of Listening to Quiet. Sounds weird, right? I challenge you to just TRY it. Turn off the teevee, the radio, the iPod (or equivalent listening device). Turn off the thoughts and bumper-car processing of random noise, and take a moment to simply 'be.' Much like getting used to a house's no-sounds when the power goes out, turning off the noise so you can hear yourself think is a process of rediscovering what's already there.

It's a challenge. Let me know if you're picking up the (quietly) thrown gauntlet.

And have a lovely day.