Deep Listening

Listening is something we all take for granted to the point that we never truly listen anymore. We think we do, but we don't. We only hear snipets of life, from the TV to iPods. Train announcements to the general chatter of teens on the bus. But it is snipets as we are so wound up in our day to day mundane lives and we are surrounded by so much noise that we have almost become numb to true sound. We have stopped deep listening!

Of course I'm no different really to anyone else. I'm sat here typing away with the TV playing behind me and I'm not really listening at all as I'm focused on this. People will speak to me and I don't really hear them because my mind is elsewhere. And even when we're meant to be listening, we don't.

But an odd thing happend a few days back when I was doing something very mundane. I was making myself lunch, a simple sandwhich. I seemed to have my ears truly open and every sound I made in the kitchen, I heard it. From the peeling back of the margarine tub to opening the fridge door. I was hearing sounds I'd not really noticed that much before. Of course I heard the sounds when ever I did such things, but I never really listened to how they sounded.

So can the same be said when we step out in to the green woodlands or the sandy beaches? Do we truly listen to each step we take and the results of the impact of our footfalls? Do we really hear every rustle of the breeze in the trees or the waves on the pepples? How much do we miss because we have stopped deep listening. I think for the most part it is hard to listen so deeply because our minds, as well as our ears, are so full of life in general. It creates a kind of barrier and the only real way to listen so deeply is to sit quietly, and focus on the sounds around us. To almost block out everything else. Something that can be rather difficult as we are so easly distracted. Things popping in and out of our minds and ears. Mundane and silly little things. But still, it is something we should all try from time to time, to open  up our hearts, minds and ears to the beauty that surrounds us, be we pagan or not. To really listen to those beautiful sounds, no matter how mundane they may be.