I was out walking today and apparently had the music in my headphones turned up louder than I realized. I could still hear a lot of the outside sounds, but as I rounded a corner, I heard something different and I couldn’t make out what it was. I turned my volume down low and
waited for it to happen again. I thought I was hearing chickens, but quickly found out it was just a dog.
I was focused on my music and had it loud enough that I was missing more subtle sounds on my walk. Sometimes that’s okay, but today I wanted the full experience of being outside in nature—not just what I could see and hear over loud music. The barking dog helped me notice that I was missing things.
In life, when I’m intentionally tuned in to the noise around me (distractions, troubles, etc.) and/or the chatter inside my head, I’m going to miss out on gifts. I will miss subtleties meant to enhance my experiences.
My hearing can only discern so many things at once when something has a volume advantage. In life matters, volume in this example means quantity—how much noise is in my life compared to everything else I could focus on for enrichment.
If I have the volume way up on troubles, decisions, worries, what if’s and how will I ever’s, and when the volume of those issues are bigger than my present moment, I will overlook some gifts for sure. But I may also miss the answers to my questions and concerns.
I said a prayer before my walk today, God please show me what you want me to write about this week. I was walking, singing, stretching and talking to a few neighbor cats, wondering where the lesson might be.
As soon as I turned the volume down to make out the rest of the sounds I was unknowingly missing, a light bulb went off in my head. It was an unusual way to find it, but I knew I had my lesson for the weekly email.
Turn down the noise! Sometimes even the noise we think is helpful is still just noise. We need to tune in to nothing, so that we can hear everything. We need to focus on less, so we can enjoy more.
In quiet breath alone lies a multitude of gifts. Inhale deeply and often.
