I should be studying...
Hello Guys and Gals!
I find that I am settling, no longer challenging myself. Settling allows for less stress about the things that matter (to me) and more stress about things I think do not matter as much. With that being said, I have just had a realization, settling is not better (I had been wondering about that) than challenging myself!
Can we really learn that many new things from listening to ourselves speak? I would think that there is more to be gained from what others have to say rather than listening over and over to what we already know.
First things first, that is taken from Ryan Guerra (http://www.myspace.com/ryanguerra), not sure in this day and age if even that has to be cited. Call it univerisity madness.
I was creeping and felt perhaps I could start thinking again with this as a stimulant.
I guess the main part is that this began with a line something like "Why do people always want to talk so much more than they want to listen?", which immediately evoked a response because I find myself listening a lot of the time with no desire to speak. I sometimes wonder why people wish to speak so much, not even with the connotation that they should be listening more, but what is wrong with silence. There is a lot to say about silence, but I guess it is more, why do so many people in this place wish to speak, to make noise instead of just being still and listening? Not even listening to another (because that means someone else is speaking) but to listen to our world. To the nature of it, to what we have made it (cars, trucks, sirens anyone?) and to whatever else is out there. We also need to just take the time to listen to ourselves. We crowd our worlds with noise (talking, music, the idiot box, restlessness) and when we overload our ears we can no longer listen to ourselves or to the power that is bigger than us. I believe there is such wisdom already flowing through us. I know I get wrapped up in trying to search for that wisdom of all wisdoms, that answer to life and even as I type this I think I have found what I have been looking for, that the wisdom is within us. It is flowing through our veins, its in our blood. It comes from the almighty creator and from our very human creators as well, our parents. It is in our blood physically and figuratively. We just have to be still and listen. Take away the noise that suffocates.
But for us to find other wisdoms, to challenge ourselves to grow we must listen to others. So everyone being silent and simply listening would not work. Unless of course we were all comforted and happt to accept only out wisdom. We become challenged when we listen to what others' have to say. Which means WE, I, cannot be listening ALL the time. Like many other things in life, there is a balance. That fine point on an ever changing scale. The point I set out to make in this ramble was that if we were ALL trying to listen to others, no one would be speaking. I generally understand where the statement is coming from, those who speak excessively and barely ever take the time to listen, but at the same time we must all remember that we were meant to speak at times, when the time is right. These days, I feel as if what I am speaking is worthless, yet when I feel like I have nothing to say, it is unacceptable some how. Some how I feel some people do not understand silence and listening. And at the same time as all this, I feel as if I have no one to talk with. To have the ease of acceptance and understanding, on both sides.
The last comment I want to try and make is in regards to "rather than listening over and over to what we already know". I think we end up listening to what we already know over and over again because perhaps we do not really KNOW it. In some cases, I think it gets repeated because we are searching for confimation, we do not trust that it is right. Or perhaps by repeating it, it is like an invitation. I know I send out things I believe in coversation, quite a few, to try and find another who will converse with me, in some exhilerating way that matters. Or maybe, we listen to what we know, because of a fear of the unknown. Perhaps it is easier to not listen to others, to go unchallenged!
There is still the fabulous point that we must listen to what others have to say. But I believe that it is more than just listening, to be able to listen to what others have to say, we have to be open to that. What someone else says will most likely challenge us, challenge that wisdom perhaps we have 'found' or are trying to find. With our world today, there is so much access to a variety of views, and if we listen it can become confusing. It becomes a chore to listen I think, therefore we simply speak what we know, because it is the easy way.
None the less, I believe in the power of listening, listening to what is inside ones self, listening to the greater power and listening to others. More people need to do it. Need to take those few minutes, hours, days to simply listening and look inside themselves. I found where I am, hardly anyone takes the time to listen and they choose to speak. They choose to ask others what to do, instead of listening to what THEY want. I suggest learning the power of listening!
I have no idea where those thougths came from in Ryan, but those are some of the thoughts that came to me. I think this will be a good exercise for me, now it is a selfish excerise. Hmmm....
Much peace, Kelsie