One of the reasons I've finished up some projects recently is because I've allowed a little more silence in my life. Usually I knit while listening to something - either an audiobook, the news, or some podcast. This means that projects usually get stalled at the point that they require more concentration than I can devote while listening.
I realized that I felt guilty when I wasn't taking in information. In a modern, fast-paced city, surrounded by people with completely different life experiences, and with my google reader serving up more content than I could possibly keep up with, my ignorance became obvious and oppressive. I feel obligated to learn as much as I possibly could just to be a worthy member of the human race.
Recently I took a step back. Being a person isn't about trying to know everything about everything, but about carving out our own little niche in the universe and engaging with it the best way we can. I've been forcing myself to turn everything off once in a while and I notice so much of the world around me in a new way. Even just taking a walk to lunch the other day *gasp* without cramming earbuds into my ears I noticed some things I hadn't noticed since I first arrived in Singapore - the symphony of the bugs in the afternoon, the creamy frangipani flowers on the path to the canteen, students studying and flirting at the picnic tables. These are things worth noticing, even if it means I only listen to half as much political analysis as I used to. (On a side note, I am so glad the US elections are over. If I heard one more highly educated and possibly impactful journalist waste breath and talent making election predictions which are not useful or informative I would have puked.)
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| A frangipani flower. |
Is silence a part of your life?
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