Day 114

Day 114: Real Time
Day 10: 21 Day Complaint Free Journey

As I sat in my morning sanctuary on Labor Day, the silence was huge. It had depth and was a palatable presence around me.

I’ve lived in my house for over 20 years. It sits at the southern end of this immense city, the one that often touts itself as the “largest” city in the US. (Depending on how many millions of trees you count, that might be true. But let’s not quibble.) It wasn’t until the nearby interstate grew a few more lanes in each direction a few years ago that I could hear the hollow sounds of traffic from my bedroom. All those tires whooshing by, the drivers of the cars oblivious to thousands of lives carrying on mere steps away from their rolled up windows.

So now, even on weekends, it is rare for the quiet to return. Maybe it has to do with wind patterns, too. I don’t know much about those things. But two days ago the silence was powerful, a fullness to it that could almost be touched. The cardinal’s single note call pierced the silence and then fell away, an aberration in the perfect stillness. How can the absence of sound be so vast?

Downsizing

Much like the mind. It has no structure that we can illustrate for a textbook about positive thinking, or any other kind of thinking for that matter. The falling away of the birdcalls in the perfect hush might be compared to the thoughts, including the criticisms, that appear in our minds.

If we allow it, they will fall away, too.

Day 10