What Are You Listening To?

So I'm sitting here at my kitchen table, surfing the net. What I'm actually doing is putting off getting going for the day. It's just housework, a couple of errands, and a work out that's ahead of me today, but I'm feeling particularly lazy and not motivated to get moving.

So I surf.

And read email.

I subscribe to a couple of minimalist writers who "write to the inbox." This seems to be a new way of communicating with readers, as opposed to blogging. Interesting, and I'm not sure how that works exactly, but whatever.

In one of those inbox messages the writer talks about the need sometimes to just be still and listen. That's the extent of her idea of being refreshed and recharged, while my idea of doing that tends more toward prayer and listening specifically for direction from the Holy Ghost, but I like her idea of stopping the busy-ness for a while and literally just hearing your surroundings. So in the interest of playing along, I will do just that.

With my eyes closed, three things that I can hear this morning are:

1. Strains of jazz (Spyro Gyra? I think so). We have music on almost all the time these days. Nice.
2. The tap of my husband's fingers across his computer keyboard. Another sound that can be heard almost all the time around here! Love that.
3. The whir of the fan upstairs that blows the heat down into the living room instead of letting it collect at the top of the stairs and at the ceiling level.

If you stop and close your eyes for a minute and just listen what do you hear?

More importantly, what are you listening to?

There is a difference.

One is a physiological sensory function. The other shapes your life.