Thursday, August 18, 2016

231.366 - 2016 project and quiet

every day in 2016, write a sentence or a paragraph or a poem that appreciates

quiet

imagine me grinning at you.  no, I haven't found some new magical drug.  or some way to turn off Los Angeles.  as well as I can tell, Los Angeles still sounds like whizzing cars, sirens, and helicopters at any time of the day.  well no, three times a day, for an hour or two, the whizzing cars are replaced by creeping cars and horns and hollers.  so where's the quiet?  in my mind.  no, I can't tell you how I got it, but I attribute it to years of practice with what I learned from Landmark.  giving up blame and fault and wrong as well as I have.  giving up this-isn't-it and why-me? and this-isn't-fair as well as I have.  a lot of those voices in my head have shut up.  their silence is wonderful.  I can now hear sounds I appreciate, like how-goddam-much-fun-it-was-to-program-computers!  like what-a-pleasure-it-is-to-watch-a-woman-walk.  or even this-author-knows-how-to-write-English!  these voices are much quieter and not nearly so upset.  oh, don't worry, I still get fits of "wrong!  wrong!  wrong!"  that is, I still live in our world.  I still get the news.  I still feel for my fellow citizens of the world.  but mostly I don't live in that state of "wrong!  wrong!  wrong!" any more, I just visit it from time to time to remind myself of how I useta live..  being able to read part of a book while only reading part of a book is such a pleasure!  and when I put it down, the world is still here, ready for me to get upset about.  but I cherish those intervals of quiet, not just reading, but any of the times I work on something and just work on that something, as if I'd managed to close the door on all those upset voices for a while.  nice!

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