Observing people and listening to their earnest conversations is a subtle way to get the pulse of a community, and a limited, but general sense of where the broader collective is currently at — with regard to conscious awareness, beliefs, moral consensus, cultural values and ideologies. It’s just information, but I invariably find it to be telling. There is always more to what’s merely said or shared, and I find it fascinating.
Social media, blogs and podcasts are present and invaluable sources of information as well, provided we populate our feeds with varied, rather than entirely biased perspectives; with those whose interests are disparate from our own, and with those whom we could easily sit down and engage with in discourse over a coffee or a glass of wine.
Within our own minds, we engage in what is likely the most personal conversation. This dialogue is the most telling, and arguably the most meaningful to attain peace with; it is always here with us, so it would follow that it benefits us greatly to make friends with the ever-present inner voice. It’s inevitably the most challenging voice to not only listen to, but to really hear. It’s easy to walk away, dismiss, mute or “unfollow” a dissonant or discouraging voice from outside us, but it’s not so easy with our own inner dialogue.
Still, when you listen…
Listen to understand. Listen to feel into and appreciate. Listen to unravel and unpack and discern. Listen to discover an unknown path. Listen to love. Listen to judge, criticize, reflect, and thus educate yourself, and to grow. Listen to connect and to relate. Listen to decode and decipher. Listen to hear your own worries mirrored back to you. Listen to witness authenticity and vulnerability. Listen to what the heart desires. Listen to witness life, raw, unfiltered, open, messy and real.
Listen to know you are not alone.
Listen to hear your calling.
Listen to the language of the world.
Listen to the pulse of the consciousness that you exist within. It’s quite remarkable.
Solvitur ambulando