Sometimes I listen with such intensity to music and voices and sundry sounds that I can’t hear my life.
What is my life saying and singing and sounding?
Frederich Buechner suggests that muting the noise pollution from time to time is critical to hearing my life.
“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”
Over the years I have made feeble efforts at transforming my narrowly defined Lenten fast into a more broadly experience Lenten rhythm of life.
I have heard the two most common items people fast during Lent are alcohol and chocolate. May I suggest abstaining from two things during your fast?
Abstaining from speed and sound. Slow down. Quiet down.
Listen to your life.