I’ve been walking my dog around in my desert neighborhood and leaving my phone and music at home. Today, as I drank in the quiet, I spotted a baby hummingbird on top of a mature saguaro. I realized that listening to music (or podcasts) often distracts me from seeing the true beauty around me. My walks have become walking meditations.
“It seems to me that some of us value information over wonder, and noise over silence. And I feel that we need a lot more wonder and a lot more silence in our lives.”
Fred Rogers
Kevin thought for a few minutes.
Lily just smiled and shrugged.
In the silence that followed, Kevin felt calmer. Lily’s reaction (or, rather, lack of reaction) to his complaints gave him space to think.
She left a lot of space.
And he realized that he just might be wrong.
*From my next book, Kevin the Complainer
I’m going to Seattle – flying out of Phoenix – alone.
I’ll walk to Bruce Lee’s burial site and I will utter his famous words:
“The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.”
I’ll walk a mile to the Korean Bamboo and slurp kimchi tofu soup which is the fare of my clan.
I’ll venture into the Seattle Art Museum, study Iskra Johnson’s Color Bath and art from Jodhpur, India.
I’ll go to the Space Needle and, standing on the rotating glass floor, look at the bustling world below me.
At night, I will write and paint and bask in the hushed moonlight.
In my sojourn, the silence will allow me to hear myself.
Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.
Eckhart Tolle
If I could say anything to my students, I’d say:
“Hi, my name is Mrs. Wyatt and I like it very quiet.”
But alas, my last name is Wipff
(origin: Alsace-Lorraine) Yes, Swiss
I chose this name! I married it.
My surname is Chung but not Chinese, Korean
It is pronounced “Jung” – not “yung” like Carl (who was Swiss, by the way)
What’s that you say?
Oh yes, I love the Quiet
*Part of my alphabiography series
We are all so busy with life: our work, family, and hobbies. My job is very noisy. I’m a teacher in an elementary/middle school and the hallways are filled with children yelling and laughing from very early morning until late afternoon. My students and I have lively discussions and then there are meetings after school. My fellow teacher (and friend!) and I are also sponsoring the school talent show – another boisterous endeavor.
When I get home, my husband and I discuss our day, my kids practice violin and tell us about their day. It’s all good, but…it’s challenging – to say the least – to get some quiet time. And I LOVE, love, love quiet time.
In addition to walking my dog after work and walking in middle of the day, I have started mini-meditations. In mini-meditation, I focus on my breathing. This might last 60 seconds or three minutes. I also meditate for 8 minutes in the morning right after waking.
Eckhart Tolle suggests the mini-meditations throughout the day in order to incorporate it as part of your “real” life and not as a compartmentalized portion of one’s life.
It makes sense.
I’ve noticed that since I’ve started this practice of incorporating space into my day, I am experiencing spontanenous moments of peace within chaos. Where I used to feel anxious or stressed, I feel calm and centered.
Kismet 