Human to Human

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Listening Matters — Circle Helps With That

Excerpted from full article here.

There is a notion that I have learned from one of my primary Circle teachers, Christina Baldwin, that I want to state and then tweak. “Fifteen seconds of silence in contemporary culture,” she says, “can be profound.”

As a culture, I would suggest that many of us have raised chatter — filling communications and relationships rather than listening for the natural silence of them — to an unchallengeable norm. Many people that I meet have grown uncomfortable with even short moments of pause. “They’re awkward.” “They’re uncomfortable.” “They’re unnatural.” We tell ourselves these things, don’t we.

The tweak I want to offer on Christina’s statement is that by extension, “fifteen seconds of listening can also be profound.” And I want more than fifteen seconds of that too.

In my experience, Circle helps four levels of listening to occur: to self, to each other, to the group, to the subtle. Circle, among all other things, is most centrally that for me — a way to listen well in a world that has so frequently replaced listening with noise. Circle is not a whiz-bang, flash-in-the-pan, new-fangled methodology. And no, I don’t believe Circle is a fix all for all situations. But good connecting and good listening will always help.

 

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This Very Moment

One of the people I’m really interested in learning more from is Pema Chodron. She is an American born Tibetan Buddhist and teacher to one of my closest friends. I have not met Pema in person. I know however, a comfort and a sanity through her words that I hear from a CD collection and from her writings.

One of those bits of sanity for me are these words, “This very moment is the perfect teacher.” This is her opening line from the CD that I’ve been listening to several times over the last week. It has weight. In the last several months, it has become a very important reminder to me. This very moment of frustration. This very moment of fear. This very moment of embarrassment. I’m learning more about this very moment of joy, exhilaration, and laughter also, but those don’t grab my attention in the same way. Perhaps they will in the future, or in one of the upcoming very moments.

Pema is reminding me of something that I learned through my grandmothers. “There is always something to learn.” One of my grandmothers taught me to think this. Another of my grandmothers taught me to feel this. They taught me that there is always a plethora of material. The obvious ones like my early days of university classes in Edmonton, Alberta. Or in the loss of a community league hockey game that I played. They helped also with the more challenging ones. The loss of a girlfriend. The loss of innocence. The death of my father.

There is always something to learn. My grandmothers’ invocations helped me make sense of things, as I was want to do. Just as it is now with Pema’s reminder, this very moment is the perfect teacher. Those words help me to pause just enough, to interrupt runaway thoughts and give my attention to what’s in front of me, and to remember that if nothing else, there is opportunity to make just a bit more sense of this interesting journey that is life, starting with the simple moment in front of me.

 

 

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Such a Canadian Thing to Do

I saw a report recently that describes how Canada is removing visitor fees at its National Parks for the 2017 calendar year. In addition, they are giving new citizens a free year pass. They are also giving people under 18 free passes.

In this video (2 minutes), the woman interviewed says, “It’s such a Canadian thing to do.”

As I watched the video, I have to say first, I got really excited. I’ve been to some of those parks. They are impressive. I also found myself curious about the economic impact. The report says $60 million revenue loss.

So, why are they doing it? Here’s a few thoughts:

  1. It’s a grand celebration. 2017 marks the 150 year anniversary of national parks in Canada. It’s the sunk cost of a good party.
  2. There is economic partnership with some of the businesses in and near the park entrances. I don’t know if this is true, but I suspect that with increased visitors there will also be increased economic benefit.
  3. It’s a leader. A teaser. Draw people in with a freebie. Trust that they will get hooked and want to come back.
  4. It’s a massively good commitment to public health. There’s plenty of data to claim that people as a whole are healthy when they experience nature (or remember that they are nature). Gutsy call right.

My favorite explanation is the one on public health. I suspect all of them are true at some level. But I’ll stick with #4.

Watch the video. Then go to a park — whether it’s national (in Canada or not), or the flower box at the end of your street.

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Tweets of the Weeks

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