Page 9 - NEWSLETTER Dec 25 Jan 26 Helen

Hearing or Listening?

When Eric and I walk on the ridge behind our home, we often walk in silence. We keep silence but
sound is all around us. Some comes from the gentle creak of birch trees bowing before the wind.
Some arises from leaves blowing their Autumn rustle, our footsteps softened on the rusts, browns
and golds of those lying on the pathways. Unseen in the trees, birds call, different calls from the
territorial spring claims; squirrels demand that we move on. Dogs claim their territories or owners
call in their dogs. Brief conversational greetings are offered to and received from other walkers.
We listen enough to reply.

Sometimes we talk, sharing experience, feelings, observations, recollections, plans. Now our
listening is different, focused. Our attention shifts from the general recognition of surrounding

noise to deliberate, particular, listening to each other. That listening means actively paying
attention to the words and sounds that we hear to absorb their meaning. I can remember from
my childhood many (many, many) years ago, being firmly told not to talk at all while my parents,
particularly my father, listened to ‘The Archers´. That was a lesson in focused listening.

Occasionally we have to admit, our attention has shifted and we have not absorbed all the words
the other person is saying. Sometimes, our minds drift to other thoughts and though we are
probably still hearing the other person, we are not really listening to what is said.

The definition of listening means paying attention to the words and sounds that we hear to absorb
their meaning. But what does it mean when we are actively attending to silence, knowing it as an

experience of silence. ? Sometimes, maybe, we enter a period of silence only to find we can’t
engage with it - being with our difficult thoughts is not always pleasant or comfortable.

I need that first stage of ‘hearing’ but not ‘attending’, to happen. Sometimes it seems easy to
settle, relax, to let thoughts quieten, to wait expectantly for that deep quiet, the non-thinking
quiet. Sometimes I can enter into that feeling of expectant waiting for divine guidance to arise.
Sometimes it isn’t easy. At times my thoughts are tied up with or by concerns that need to be
acknowledged before a deeper quiet is possible. Sometimes it may be disturbed by a spoken
ministry. Then I let my thoughts take in that ministry. I don’t mentally beat myself up if that deep
silence doesn’t prove possible. I accept it as good enough.

Spending time in silence has been found to have positive effects on the body in terms of reducing
blood pressure and boosting the immune system, so, if my thoughts won’t quieten, it is good for
my physical self. Maybe I would update the quotation that I believe came from William Penn,

something like, ‘True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body,
nourishment and refreshment.’

Courtesy of Dorrie Johnson