Most of us here know that recently we resurrected our Women’s Retreat after several years of dormancy, where we explored the concept of communicating.
We broke this broad topic into three parts… communicating with each other,
communicating with oneself, and communicating with God.
We were quite pleased about how this overarching communication topic deliciously blended with our October theme of deep listening.
We all agreed that the subset of listening, within the broader framework of communicating, is critically important, especially these days when there’s so much…
so much busy-ness in our fully-packed days, that listening to our own inner voice -yes, each of you have one, a voice blended with your DNA and divinity–
that inner voice is easily and frequently drowned out.
In addition to so much distractedness in our personal intimate lives, there’s also so muchdivision in the outer world, between us.
Communicating with, listening to each other, has never, ever been more needed.
And because of all that so-much-ness, being spiritually grounded is imperative.
And thus, the premise for our retreat adventures of a couple of weeks ago.
There’s another domain of listening that we didn’t cover, not exactly, anyway.
That’s listening to your environment, which is a little different from oneself, another person, or God.
Here’s a story that underscores how one listens environmentally.
It’s an old story about the cricket and the coins.
Two people are walking down a busy city street. Everyone is rushing to and from their work, trying to get ahead. One of the friends turns to the other and says, “Do you hear that? It’s a cricket!” The other friend responds with skepticism, but after focusing his attention finally hears it. “Wow,” he says, “How did you hear that cricket with all the noise around us?” His friend responds, “It’s all about how I was raised, about what I was taught to listen for.” He goes on, “Here, I’ll show you something.” The friend then reaches into his pocket and pulls out a handful of coins – nickels, quarters, dimes – and he drops them on the sidewalk. Everyone who was rushing by stops… to listen.
What are we tuned in to? That which is there all the time.
I tend to think that this is often the case with music…there are lyrics that we all know. But have we taken a deep enough listening dive to harvest the honey?
So we’ll take a look (a listen) at a few songs today, taking time to really hear them, perhaps a bit more meditatively than if they came up on the oldies station on the way to the grocery store.
Each of the songs chosen fall into our sacred listening categories of self, others, and God.
Before we start I will share with you what I consider a lovely introduction to being moved by this music. It’s a commentary on a song we’ll hear later, but it’s serves as a great prelude. This was posted online a month ago:
Imagine this, from a 65 year old male, I grew up thinking that anything to do w God, was some kind of sick cult. Then, in life, I had to get thru triumph and tragedy, and making some kind of sense of it all, which I couldn’t. Then I heard this song, approximately 15 years ago. I got baptized, and now understand that God is everything, and everywhere. And it’s so much easier for me, to see all the beauty in the world now. … just “Open Your Heart, Open Your Mind.”
With that let us begin with our listening-to-self song. These 451219 lyrics speak of coming home spiritually, seeking grace and serenity and wonder, turning his sights within to understand more deeply, and communicating/listening for God.
Let’s listen…. (Rocky Mountain High by John Denver).
This song was released when I was 9, so I’ve been listening to it for some time now. For the longest time I thought it was primarily about sitting around the campfire in the mountains smoking weed. I sang along with the words, but never really listened to them.
I remember a couple of years ago strolling down the street, with this song playing out of my phone as I walked my dogs in Louisville.
On the sidewalk I approached a guy about my age who could also hear it and he said, “Great song!” And I said, “Yes, it’s very spiritual.” He looked at me as if it to say, “What??” I just smiled, kept walking.
Let’s hear now a song that speaks more about how we communicate with each other – or don’t, as it were.
I think this song is a sad anthem to how divided we have become from one another.
It speaks of a vision, seeds being planted with potential, but remaining dormant. It speaks of aloneness, turning away, refusal to listen, silence that exists between us like a cancer.
It speaks of invitation for connection – “Take my arms that I might reach you” – falling on deaf ears.
It speaks of people, like us, bowing our heads in prayer…but what are we praying for? Especially these days, these next days and weeks, is our prayer as much about curiosity of the other, genuine desire to understand and connect, as much as it is about having our own way?
Let’s listen… (Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel).
These words of wisdom are found in our materials for Deep Listening this month:
Just think about why you listen to those close to you. Is it really just to gather information? Or is it because you’ve discovered in those rare moments of deep listening a space opens up between and around the two of you? A space radically different than before, that feels sacred. Listening isn’t just a tool to help us collect and clarify information. It’s a place – that sacred space. We don’t have conversations; we are our conversations, because listening can literally impact who we become.
But that can’t happen if we surround ourselves with the stony walls of silence.
We have one more song to hear. The commentary for this one will be the online posts people have made about it in recent years, underscoring its timeless beauty.
Here are some of the comments…
-This song awakened that feeling called freedom. Freedom with soul.
-This song is about love and gratitude toward existence and humanity.
– It reminds me how transcending music is.
– WOW wow. I’ve never really listened to the words in this song. All I can say if every person stopped and listened to these words just maybe we might have a chance at people changing themselves to love because love is the answer. I’m just really taken back by this amazing song I’ve heard for many a year but never really stopped to listen to something so beautiful.
Let’s listen to it now….(Crystal Blue Persuasion by Tommy James and the Shondells)
This pop song is clearly a song of praise. You don’t have to work too hard to gain its meaning, and that’s part of the beauty of it.
I’d guess that most pop songs are about love of the romantic variety. But do you ever listened through a prayerful filter, giving it a spiritual quality?
I did recently with Close to You by the Carpenters, imagining it was about Jesus. I invite you to play it and listen as if it was written about Jesus. You just have to add “and boys” to the line “That is why all the girls in town follow you all around.”
Try it…it’s a wonderful spiritual practice. If Jesus were here, I can see him in his Levi’s and Bears sweatshirt playing his vinyl (because cool people play vinyl these days), prayerfully experiencing almost any song that touches on love.
It’s time to hear from you now. If you’d like, offer to the rest of us a popular song that we all know that is prayerful or inspiration to you.
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