I was talking to friends on the phone from their car today and I had a momentary memory lapse: we were talking about last year’s New Years Eve. The mom was saying, “Remember, we were all together at our house?”
Slowly it was coming back to me as I spoke. Meanwhile, from the back seat, comes the voice of the first grader:
At first I couldn’t remember either but then I went quiet and went inside my mind and then I started to remember it all!
I just love watching as her awareness and self-awareness come alive in synchrony with an expanding vocabulary.
Then I saw this article on the NYTimes.com called The Joy of Quiet by Pico Iyer. He says,
In barely one generation we’ve moved from exulting in the time-saving devices that have so expanded our lives to trying to get away from them — often in order to make more time. The more ways we have to connect, the more many of us seem desperate to unplug.
I chuckle, as 12/31 is also my birthday, and I often try to make at least some if not all of it a silent retreat. That is two way silence by the way. Not speaking yet also not listening to the outside. Technology especially included! My friend Peter Liu retreated this past week. As he slowly emerges, he had this endorsement on Twitter:
Then of course later I look up and there is this banner ad displaying on the web page in front of me:
For me, the silence is not to fulfill a spiritual obligation. It is simply – to remember. To remember my connection to the whole hologram of all that is and to remember how many choices I have in any given moment. To remember that I am ultimately safe; no matter what happens I shall return to the unlimited state of everything and nothingness, just like you. To remember that life is but a game – one that we are creating and playing in the same moment, safe and free at all times.
Special thanks to my friend Liza Pierce who suggested in our Maui bloggers group that we each post something on January 1, 2012. I really appreciated the idea and happily ride the thread of energy to get here today!
I am also contributing this to my friend Tania Ginoza’s compilation of New Year’s Resolutions coming soon to her Maui Shop Girl blog. Though I don’t do resolutions per se, I do love this “do over” that we get every January 1st and the surge of inspiration and energy that often accompanies it.
Happy New Year – isn’t it fun we get to start over again?
Love,
Photo Credit: Quiet by towardsthesunset on Flickr
