Noise. Volume. Buzz and blaring.
Opinions. Arguments. Facts and fictions.
Red. Black. Yellow and orange.
Frenzy. Chaos. Disarray and dysfunction.
While cliche and obvious but no less true nonetheless, we are living in a difficult age. Oversaturated and overstimulated, we are under a near-constant assault of information and sensory input. Enmeshed as we are in this digital, electronic era, we keep ourselves abuzz with all that buzzes around us. Information of all kinds twirls and swirls in our eyes and ears, at our fingertips, through the air we breathe, and often around the food we eat after we post images of it for all to see, but not to taste.
Imagine a hundred years ago, before we tamed the electron and gave the immediacy of information omnipresent and omnipotent domain. Imagine the stillness at night and the peace of it all. Consider the great expanses between our communities, nothing but the solitude of ourselves and the landscape to trigger our senses.
When was the last time you experienced true quiet, absolute darkness, or a clear mind without thoughts and worries pinballing around behind your eyes and betwixt your ears?
Sleep is restorative, but that's not the same. The mind needs to unplug, unfocus, let go, and clear out. Ironically, having up to the moment information and stimulation keeps us from living in the moment. We've become accustomed to taking in everything but ourselves.
We need the quiet, the still, the expanse.
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