Silence
It seems that currently all roads are leading to silence and solitude. I live in a location where there are various roosters that crow most of the day and night, dogs in the street that bark at all hours of the night, a bakery out my window with an oven timer that starts around 4:30am, a bus stop out front, and a restaurant downstairs that comes with its own din. Silence isn't really part of my daily life. I go to work and have between 20-30 children running around and then go home to the same din of living downtown. Don't get me wrong, I love having things close, I love the roosters, but I am finding myself more and more craving the silence.
Last weekend a friend of mine, who is from a small town up the mountain, invited me to go cut sweet corn with her. I leapt at the chance. We got on the second bus of the morning and made the 40 minute journey mostly in silence, enjoying the beauty of the mountain and the view of the ocean behind us and we traveled inland. From the small town we met up with some neighbors and headed yet up. As we reached the dead end of the street, we went through a break in the fence to walk through a coffee plantation. I could feel myself breathing deeper, my shoulders relaxing more, as I embraced the tranquility of the country. As we walked, me admiring the small green coffee fruit, others chatting, I couldn't help smiling to myself. As the trek became more difficult the chatter fell away and I found myself hoping that nobody would break the silence. I often stopped to turn back and taking in the panoramas and simply breath. What is it about nature that reminds us to just stop and breath? As we came upon a patch of guava trees we stopped for a snack. I felt full simply by the sweet odor of the abundance of fruit on the ground. We reached a point among the corn and bean fields where not even the road could reach and yet we continued to climb. When we finally reached our destination it was more that I could imagine and yet so much less than you would expect. We arrived at a friend's house after two hours of climbing and found ourselves in the shelter of a circle of trees with a house made of dirt and bamboo and a woman making soup over a wood fire.
I was not only humbled, but honestly felt a bit of jealousy. There is something inexplicable desirable to me about living a very simple life. We spent the first few hours there shucking corn, cutting the kernels off the cobs, saving the husks, and also picking fresh beans. I was taken aback by the amount of crops that cover the mountainside and the fact that every seed was placed in the ground by a human hand. Incredible. We then proceeded to a small grinder where we ground A LOT of corn. From that we made tamales de elote, which are sweet corn tamales (and are incredibly delicious) and we also made a drink called "atol." It is made from the same ground sweet corn, but boiled with the milk from the corn, some cinnamon, and maybe some sugar and strained to make a smooth, thick, warm, drink, which is very appropriate in the chilly mountain climate.
I could go on and on about every detail of the day because it was an incredible day for me. I could tell you about the horse I rode bare back, the fresh goat milk I drank, and the gracious people I met. When we finally came down from the mountain we left with much more than we came with, and once again I was so very much impacted by how the humble are so generous with the little they have. But what I really want to focus on in the post is the craving for the simple.
I believe there is something innate about us as humans that makes us desire the simple; to go back to the roots. There are so many movements in the US right now that are all about "Farm to Table," "Home Grown," and a million other similar ideas. Why? I found the quote on Pinterest, and I think there is a lot of truth in it:
Psalm 104 talks a lot about God's majesty and His creation. He didn't mess up when he made us. He had each of us planned from the beginning. It's the process of living that messes us up. We become what our parents, teachers, siblings, friends (you fill in the blank) tell us to be or expect us to be. We lose God's voice. I think this is part of why I seek the simple. I wan't to rid my life of the noise of the world so that I can hear the only voice that actually matters.
I love audiobooks. I recently decided to download one on Audible.com called Present Over Perfect in which the author, who happens to be a Christian, Shauna Niequist tells a tale of her own personal pursuit of solitude. It seems only fitting that I would be listening to this book when I feel God leading me more and more into his presence as he silences all the other voices.
To wrap this up I want to ask you a question: How do you feel about silence? Do you cringe at the thought? Do you feel the impulse to at least have music in the background? Do you seek it at all? I don't know your answers to these questions, but I do know that current culture does not encourage a person to disconnect from EVERYTHING and just sit in silence. If this idea terrifies you, try it for just 15 minutes to start. I know it can be hard to find the time and or space, but if I can do it amidst the zoo/market I live in, I know you can do it. My absolute favorite time of the day is the early morning. The sun is just starting to peak over the horizon, and for a moment there is stillness.
Just sit. Listen. When all the other voices are silenced, what is God whispering to you? He wants to meet you where you're at, and simply be with you. While the world asks a million things of you, He simply asks for you to be present with Him. Isn't it the least you could give to the one who created you?
Standing in awe of the silence,
Sigourney
Last weekend a friend of mine, who is from a small town up the mountain, invited me to go cut sweet corn with her. I leapt at the chance. We got on the second bus of the morning and made the 40 minute journey mostly in silence, enjoying the beauty of the mountain and the view of the ocean behind us and we traveled inland. From the small town we met up with some neighbors and headed yet up. As we reached the dead end of the street, we went through a break in the fence to walk through a coffee plantation. I could feel myself breathing deeper, my shoulders relaxing more, as I embraced the tranquility of the country. As we walked, me admiring the small green coffee fruit, others chatting, I couldn't help smiling to myself. As the trek became more difficult the chatter fell away and I found myself hoping that nobody would break the silence. I often stopped to turn back and taking in the panoramas and simply breath. What is it about nature that reminds us to just stop and breath? As we came upon a patch of guava trees we stopped for a snack. I felt full simply by the sweet odor of the abundance of fruit on the ground. We reached a point among the corn and bean fields where not even the road could reach and yet we continued to climb. When we finally reached our destination it was more that I could imagine and yet so much less than you would expect. We arrived at a friend's house after two hours of climbing and found ourselves in the shelter of a circle of trees with a house made of dirt and bamboo and a woman making soup over a wood fire.
I was not only humbled, but honestly felt a bit of jealousy. There is something inexplicable desirable to me about living a very simple life. We spent the first few hours there shucking corn, cutting the kernels off the cobs, saving the husks, and also picking fresh beans. I was taken aback by the amount of crops that cover the mountainside and the fact that every seed was placed in the ground by a human hand. Incredible. We then proceeded to a small grinder where we ground A LOT of corn. From that we made tamales de elote, which are sweet corn tamales (and are incredibly delicious) and we also made a drink called "atol." It is made from the same ground sweet corn, but boiled with the milk from the corn, some cinnamon, and maybe some sugar and strained to make a smooth, thick, warm, drink, which is very appropriate in the chilly mountain climate.
I could go on and on about every detail of the day because it was an incredible day for me. I could tell you about the horse I rode bare back, the fresh goat milk I drank, and the gracious people I met. When we finally came down from the mountain we left with much more than we came with, and once again I was so very much impacted by how the humble are so generous with the little they have. But what I really want to focus on in the post is the craving for the simple.
I believe there is something innate about us as humans that makes us desire the simple; to go back to the roots. There are so many movements in the US right now that are all about "Farm to Table," "Home Grown," and a million other similar ideas. Why? I found the quote on Pinterest, and I think there is a lot of truth in it:
Psalm 104 talks a lot about God's majesty and His creation. He didn't mess up when he made us. He had each of us planned from the beginning. It's the process of living that messes us up. We become what our parents, teachers, siblings, friends (you fill in the blank) tell us to be or expect us to be. We lose God's voice. I think this is part of why I seek the simple. I wan't to rid my life of the noise of the world so that I can hear the only voice that actually matters.
I love audiobooks. I recently decided to download one on Audible.com called Present Over Perfect in which the author, who happens to be a Christian, Shauna Niequist tells a tale of her own personal pursuit of solitude. It seems only fitting that I would be listening to this book when I feel God leading me more and more into his presence as he silences all the other voices.
To wrap this up I want to ask you a question: How do you feel about silence? Do you cringe at the thought? Do you feel the impulse to at least have music in the background? Do you seek it at all? I don't know your answers to these questions, but I do know that current culture does not encourage a person to disconnect from EVERYTHING and just sit in silence. If this idea terrifies you, try it for just 15 minutes to start. I know it can be hard to find the time and or space, but if I can do it amidst the zoo/market I live in, I know you can do it. My absolute favorite time of the day is the early morning. The sun is just starting to peak over the horizon, and for a moment there is stillness.
Just sit. Listen. When all the other voices are silenced, what is God whispering to you? He wants to meet you where you're at, and simply be with you. While the world asks a million things of you, He simply asks for you to be present with Him. Isn't it the least you could give to the one who created you?
Standing in awe of the silence,
Sigourney
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because through them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from El Salvador? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in El Salvador in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez