Embracing Wisdom – Listen

As we enter another new year, which is actually a daily occurrence, we have the opportunity to awaken what is dormant within us. This is accomplished by listening in a way most of us never learned. It’s connected to stilling, silence, and places of the heart. This listening reacts not, resists not, retains not and returns us to the quiet peaceful center of our Being. It’s the peace we all search for and it’s always here and now.

Can your recall the last time you had an argument? What assumptions were being challenged? What certainties were being questioned? What agendas were being foiled? What could have happened if you’d short circuited your immediate reactivity, slowed your breath, quieted your mind and calmed yourself for a few moments? What might have happened if you’d listened more expansively, smiled, and simply said Thank You?

Remember Socrates who said the beginning of wisdom is wonder, to know you don’t know? How could that understanding affect your reactivity if you listened to it and truly entered into it? What could happen if you would Stop, Look, and Listen deeply to the suffering behind the words before you crossed the street of anxiety, frustration, conflict, and  indignation? What if you listened for a deeper expansive wisdom in the moment?

Most of the time, the reality for us is having so many unexplored opinions that wonder has little chance of entering into our consciousness. We move quickly from thought to thought with what appears to be an inability to slow down. We thereby close off what could possibly be new ways to respond and connect. We shut out options without consideration and miss opportunities to grow and peacefully co-create.

To embrace wisdom it’s necessary to slow way down and listen to our environment, our energy; that which flows in, around, and through us. In this practice, we consciously become a part of our environment. We effectively transform it in ways not possible when we’re unconsciously ‘passing through.’ This kind of listening allows us to meet our experiences openly, embrace wonder with the eyes of a child, and touch the ineffable.

With this multi-sensory listening we restore the reign of the heart. The gift of love is  recognized as well as the dynamic necessity of reconciling apparent opposites. Rather than take static positions, create opposition and resist the call to create harmony, we move to acceptance, open ended possibilities, and restoration of relations. Wisdom walks steadily and confidently without haste and conflict. Revelation becomes real . . .

What this points to is recognizing and accepting that the more we try to be in control the more out of control we become. When we don’t hear what’s unsaid we miss most of what’s being said. When we fail to listen to the pulse of Life we lose contact with the Source and forget who we are. Remember to remember. Listen expansively. It’s a gift…