Cacophonies
Twelve hours of every day for the last month I’ve spent in bed. And every minute of those twelve hours I’ve shared with a bird outside my bedroom window. Unlike the bird I wrote about in April of 2009, this bird’s song is a cacophony, not a symphony – a constant, squawking, repetitive, distracting noise – reminding me of the world. And much like having to choose how I respond to the constant, squawking, repetitive, distracting sound of the world, I’ve had to choose how I've responded to the noise of the bird outside my bedroom window.
In this world…
The happy hear voices and laugh.
The sad hear voices and cry.
The friendly hear voices and talk.
The lonely hear voices and remain silent.
The optimists hear voices and trust.
The pessimists hear voices and doubt.
The worried hear voices and fear.
The content hear voices and remain calm.
How you feel at any given moment is a result of how YOU feel – what’s going on INSIDE of YOU – not because of what’s going on on the OUTSIDE.
It’s not that you are happy because the bird is singing a happy song or that you are sad because the bird is singing a sad song. You are happy because YOU are happy. You are sad because YOU are sad -- on the INSIDE.
“The world is too much with us,” William Wordsworth said in 1806. Today, I would say, he would say it, even more.
When the earth quakes in Japan we know it, as CNN reports it live. When Osama bin Laden is killed in Abbottabad, unknowingly someone tweets it at that moment.
That still small voice of God we hear in silence on the inside must be louder than the cacophonies of the world we hear in noise on the outside. Is it the noise or the silence we're listening to? Our response reveals it.
Listen............................Listen.................................Listen.
Did you hear that?
In this world…
The happy hear voices and laugh.
The sad hear voices and cry.
The friendly hear voices and talk.
The lonely hear voices and remain silent.
The optimists hear voices and trust.
The pessimists hear voices and doubt.
The worried hear voices and fear.
The content hear voices and remain calm.
How you feel at any given moment is a result of how YOU feel – what’s going on INSIDE of YOU – not because of what’s going on on the OUTSIDE.
It’s not that you are happy because the bird is singing a happy song or that you are sad because the bird is singing a sad song. You are happy because YOU are happy. You are sad because YOU are sad -- on the INSIDE.
“The world is too much with us,” William Wordsworth said in 1806. Today, I would say, he would say it, even more.
When the earth quakes in Japan we know it, as CNN reports it live. When Osama bin Laden is killed in Abbottabad, unknowingly someone tweets it at that moment.
That still small voice of God we hear in silence on the inside must be louder than the cacophonies of the world we hear in noise on the outside. Is it the noise or the silence we're listening to? Our response reveals it.
Listen............................Listen.................................Listen.
Did you hear that?
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