The Joy of Quiet

Ah, the joy of quiet.

This article resonated with me. Thanks to my friend Rich for sending (fascinatingly enough, he gets me.) This month I celebrate 10 years of not owning a television. I have happily missed the “Reality TV” craze, though even without a TV I have certainly heard about it.

I have removed most media from my life, including newspapers, radio and magazines. (The quarterly exception is my on-again off-again love affair with InStyle magazine. It is a pure indulgence I periodically enjoy.) This has been a gradual process and one that, in my profession and my world, makes me odd.

Once in a while, as in this case, someone I trust and who knows me sends me something from the popular press that I will read. I trust Rich, he knows me and so I read it. Without meaning to, he paid me a compliment when he told me I was the first person he thought of when he read article.

I started taking silent retreats in 2007. The first time, I didn’t even know what a silent retreat meant; I just felt drawn to it. I remember flying home from some conference where I was on stage in front of more than a thousand people. Doing that, I felt no fear. The anonymity and passing glory of being in front of a big crowd and giving a talk were all I needed. But as I headed from that experience to spend two nights and one day by myself in silence, I felt terrified.

Though still angst-inducing, silent retreats are now part of my rhythm.

So, I relate to this article. I hope you like it.

And in the midst of our crazy work-obsessed world, I am trying with Wisegate to give our members a bit of quiet. A place where they can hear themselves think, listen and gain insight from people just like them. I’ll tell you more about how we do that in an upcoming post.