Whether we like it or not, the things we do have an impact on the people and circumstances around us. Every decision we make gives a different color to the whole of life. I've heard it said that “No man is an island”, but what does it mean to actually be a part of humanity and have a direct impact on life and people? Can we even begin to number the ways in which we have changed the face of existence? Yet, on the other hand, if we had not been born, would our impact be missed? Our lives might seem obscure or unimportant, but 'large doors turn on small hinges', and you can't always see which door your hinges are attached to, making it likely that you may underestimate the importance of your little hinge.
Once upon a time I was a hinge. I was working two jobs to earn money for college and living with the family of a friend of mine. Because I worked the graveyard shift I seldom had time to interact with the family because I always needed to try to sleep during the day. Once in a while, when I wasn't too tired, I would sit with the three little children, play the guitar and sing a few of my favorite songs. After that summer I went back to school and didn't see those children again for ten years. I was attending the reception for the wedding of one of those children when the three of them took me by the arm and sat me down, pulled out a guitar and proceeded to sing for me all the songs that they had heard me sing to them. The young man who was playing the guitar told me that he wanted to work as a music technician in a sound studio and was in college studying that field. It was because I had sung to him and played the guitar that he learned the skill and had the motivation to pursue a career. My little hinge opened the door for one little boy and changed the course of his life.
Some hinges are even smaller than that. When I was in high school I was in track because I loved to run. I did pretty well, but wasn't exactly stellar. When I was a Junior, a girl moved into town who could out-run everyone. She broke every record in the school and hardly seemed to need any practice. She was what you might call a natural. Well, the coach was just in heaven and spent most his time 'coaching' the star of the team. At the end of the track year he approached me, and with a look of pity and compassion, explained that I just didn't have the 'natural ability' to be a really good runner, and that maybe my time would be better spent on something else. I stopped running and the door closed on that part of my life. But more than that, I had to overcome feelings of inadequacy for a long time after that.
Hinges can also be broken, but it takes great effort. A long time ago I was told that my voice was pretty badly damaged and that it would not be worth training. This devastated me because I loved to sing and had always wanted to learn the art of singing well. For years I battled the feelings failure and rejection that those words gave me. I would sing, but not where anyone could hear. Then one day, a man whom I respect and revere happened to hear me sing and told me that I had a beautiful voice. I realized that I didn't have to be ashamed of what God had given me just because someone didn't like it. It took a long time, and the process was very painful, but now, where the door was closed I have been able to break that old hinge and forge a new one on the other side so that I can swing the door the other way.
Sometimes we are the hinge, and sometimes we stand at the open or closed door. There is no hinge so small that it cannot change a life, and there is no door so heavy that it cannot swing on lovingly placed hinges. Words, carelessly placed, can swing heavy doors that take years to move. Love, acceptance, forgiveness and trust, given early and often, can open even the heaviest doors to let in the sunlight of possibility.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Silence is Golden
Ever since electricity was discovered and marketed we have not had a moment's peace! One noise-making machine after another has invaded our space with its humming, drumming noise. You cannot escape it wherever you go. Even in the mountains, in the furthest reaches of the wilderness you will hear the distant sound of a four-wheeler buzzing its way across the continent. Are we never to have quiet? Maybe it sounds like I am complaining. Well, I guess I am, a little. I crave silence like I crave water on a hot day, and some days it seems that the desert of noise will just go on forever.
Someone has said, “Silence is golden”, and the longer I live, the more I agree. A while back, when we lived in a different part of the country, we used to wake up every night in the middle of the night to the sound of a train that seemed to go right through the bedroom. At first it frightened me, but after a few weeks of it, I could get through it without jumping out of bed, screaming. As a mom, I do a lot of kitchen duty and I can tell you that these days kitchens are noisy places too. What with blenders, mixers, microwaves, refrigerators, timers, beepers, and automatic everything, it can turn a Sunday dinner into an ear-splitting nightmare.
But, do we really need silence? Well, ask yourself if you need to be hungry. Yes? Why? You need to be hungry in order to want to eat. If you ate constantly you would never relish any of your food. “Hunger is the best sauce”, they say. Being hungry makes you appreciate and enjoy your food. Without hunger, eating would be a chore. So it is with noise. Without silence you cannot appreciate sound.
Now think about what has happened to us. We have noise bleeping, booming, zooming and droning continuously in our ears from morning until night and then all through the night, with hardly a breath. Then, add to that the noise of choice, like television, I-pods, cell phones, and CDs which usually run on top of the other noise, making a cacophony that under other circumstances might even be considered torture. Why do we do this to ourselves? Is it that we are afraid of the silence? Have we forgotten what silence is?
Now, gold is golden too. But, in this country today we no longer have a gold standard for our currency. Money is printed, circulated and used, and there is nothing behind it but a promise. Everywhere you look there are frantic voices shouting opinions and jumping to conclusions. We forget that you cannot print money without something to back it up Things get steadily worse and little people like you and me try to avoid being swept away by the growing tide of insecurity. In the same way, when the industrial age arrived with all it's noise, we forgot that silence is golden. Noise is everywhere and silence is forgotten. We forgot to look for the birds and listen for the butterfly. We forgot that silence is a natural healer. It brings sanity, peace, contentment and a host of other benefits. All this became a lost art with the advent of constant noise.
So, what do we do? Well, I can tell you what I do. I turn off the 'boob tube' and get outside in my garden and talk to a few potato plants. I shut down the microwave and cook something simple, by hand, like pancakes, and sit down with my children in a room with no other noise and just talk and eat. I take a few minutes every day to go into a quiet room and just be quiet myself for a while. It is amazingly helpful when I have things I am worried about, or things I need to figure out. And, I make a point of stopping everything for a beautiful sunset, moonrise, landscape or any other slice of quietness and beauty. Being quiet makes the noise more bearable and it also makes music and other beautiful sounds even more enjoyable.
The gold standard for our economy won't be coming back tomorrow, but we can do our part to be a voice of reason and quiet honesty in a day of shouted opinions and indecorous behavior. Let's bring back the gold of silence, which has become as lost as the gold standard for our economy, and who knows, maybe it will bring with it some of the peace so desperately needed in this noisy world.
Someone has said, “Silence is golden”, and the longer I live, the more I agree. A while back, when we lived in a different part of the country, we used to wake up every night in the middle of the night to the sound of a train that seemed to go right through the bedroom. At first it frightened me, but after a few weeks of it, I could get through it without jumping out of bed, screaming. As a mom, I do a lot of kitchen duty and I can tell you that these days kitchens are noisy places too. What with blenders, mixers, microwaves, refrigerators, timers, beepers, and automatic everything, it can turn a Sunday dinner into an ear-splitting nightmare.
But, do we really need silence? Well, ask yourself if you need to be hungry. Yes? Why? You need to be hungry in order to want to eat. If you ate constantly you would never relish any of your food. “Hunger is the best sauce”, they say. Being hungry makes you appreciate and enjoy your food. Without hunger, eating would be a chore. So it is with noise. Without silence you cannot appreciate sound.
Now think about what has happened to us. We have noise bleeping, booming, zooming and droning continuously in our ears from morning until night and then all through the night, with hardly a breath. Then, add to that the noise of choice, like television, I-pods, cell phones, and CDs which usually run on top of the other noise, making a cacophony that under other circumstances might even be considered torture. Why do we do this to ourselves? Is it that we are afraid of the silence? Have we forgotten what silence is?
Now, gold is golden too. But, in this country today we no longer have a gold standard for our currency. Money is printed, circulated and used, and there is nothing behind it but a promise. Everywhere you look there are frantic voices shouting opinions and jumping to conclusions. We forget that you cannot print money without something to back it up Things get steadily worse and little people like you and me try to avoid being swept away by the growing tide of insecurity. In the same way, when the industrial age arrived with all it's noise, we forgot that silence is golden. Noise is everywhere and silence is forgotten. We forgot to look for the birds and listen for the butterfly. We forgot that silence is a natural healer. It brings sanity, peace, contentment and a host of other benefits. All this became a lost art with the advent of constant noise.
So, what do we do? Well, I can tell you what I do. I turn off the 'boob tube' and get outside in my garden and talk to a few potato plants. I shut down the microwave and cook something simple, by hand, like pancakes, and sit down with my children in a room with no other noise and just talk and eat. I take a few minutes every day to go into a quiet room and just be quiet myself for a while. It is amazingly helpful when I have things I am worried about, or things I need to figure out. And, I make a point of stopping everything for a beautiful sunset, moonrise, landscape or any other slice of quietness and beauty. Being quiet makes the noise more bearable and it also makes music and other beautiful sounds even more enjoyable.
The gold standard for our economy won't be coming back tomorrow, but we can do our part to be a voice of reason and quiet honesty in a day of shouted opinions and indecorous behavior. Let's bring back the gold of silence, which has become as lost as the gold standard for our economy, and who knows, maybe it will bring with it some of the peace so desperately needed in this noisy world.
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