Listen & You Shall Hear

Its raining this morning. I love rain. To me rain is magical. I look at it as God's way of washing the earth. I don't mind getting caught in it, in fact last week while riding the last mile of a 32 mile bike ride, the sky just opened up. I was too far from my house to walk so I ventured on, though ever more carefully. Wet roads are quite slick and being on a bike with a one inch tire is a recipe for disaster if you are even thinking about being careless.

The blaring rock music I have playing when I'm riding was turned off, so I could better hear approaching cars. Ever notice that when you need to focus you turn down the volume on whatever electronic device you've got playing? Especially when you are alone. No one is talking to you so what gives? Why do we do that?

I think its our way of minimizing the distractions and thereby focusing on what needs to be done. The answer will come either way, it'll just be apparent faster when all is quiet.

Hmmm. I think I'm on to something here.

Today is May 31st, and I've been in Vermont now for the better part of 5 months. As I look back on this experience what brought me here is quite obvious. What is not so obvious is what makes me stay. After all, almost everything I know and love can be found 250 miles away.

I've turned down the IPOD.

I am learning to listen without the noise and distractions of my old life. Don't misunderstand me here. This is where I have to stress that by distractions I mean the old goals that defined how I approached situations. I still have bills to pay. I still work and I work harder than I ever have. The income is substantially less but the satisfaction level has exploded to levels I never thought possible without the added comfort of multiple zeros at the end of a number. Gone are the titles (although I am President of my own LLC) because titles define and in effect (and in my opinion) are meaningless. Its the corporate world's way of of defining accountability.

While IMing with a friend yesterday I mentioned that I was pursuing something interesting (at least to me). I'm not sure what will come of it, but I know it feels right to give it a shot. He said "Is there ANYTHING you won't try?" I laughed because outside of something that would harm me, then the answer is probably no. I was never afraid of failure and I'm still not. If something feels 'right' then you owe it to yourself to give it a go. If it doesn't feel 'right' then its a moot point. You NEVER go after something that doesn't feel right to you, even if logic says it is. That wouldn't be failure, that would be stupidity.

Many books today say "you know the 'truth' about something from how you 'feel' about it". Think about that for a while. How many times do you think you've said "I should have known better"?

You did know better, unfortunately you realized it in retrospect. But what if you could train yourself to realize it AT THAT MOMENT? If you really listen, you will find you always do know. The problem is that you usually disregard that feeling and listen to your head instead. Its when you deliberately do the opposite of what that little voice tells you that you find yourself uttering those words.

Its quite a revelation really, this listening thing. I've always had the knack to do the 'right' thing as it affected my life. I've always been in tuned with that little voice that directed me. But now, its been kicked up a notch.

I still have a way to go before I can begin to truly understand why I needed to go through this period. Sure, I could have stayed in NY and by most statistics I would have had another job by now, but that part did not seem 'right'. As much as I forced myself to 'want' that, deep down inside I did not. So here I am. Yes, I gave up a tremendous amount. As one of my closest friends will say, "But you won't be able to afford Jimmy Choos!" True, but the reality is for this life style I don't need them. Its amazing when you learn what it is you really need and not just have because you 'have to' have something. It's all a question of priorities. Do you realize we create our own priorities and then complain?

The result of what is happening is that I am become far more aware of how I feel about things. People, circumstances, job offers. Yes, there have been a few. None of them seemed right and part of me thinks I am foolish for not accepting one but the part I am coming to know really well is comfortable in the fact that all this is very temporary and when the 'right' set of circumstances present themselves I will 'know'.

That 'knowing' is God's way of talking to me and now that I've turned down the MP3 player, I can really hear.