Will  you  listen?

 A simple enough question.  Or so it seems until one contemplates
“Listen to whom, listen to what?

It seems easy enough to listen to fear.  Much is being destroyed.
We always seem to be at war with something.
Nature if not each other.  Usually both.

There is certainly more attention being paid, of the moment, to listening to nature. At least it seems so. But how removed are we from that voice, really?  Are we able to speak with birds, listen to rocks?  Do we think this is even possible?

I discovered a way to think about this in a book by Michael Pollan, How to Change Your Mind. He is referencing a different idea, but the thought fits.  That’s the brain doing what the brain does–that is, working to reduce uncertainty by, in effect, telling itself stories.

So maybe who we are listening to depends on the story we are telling ourselves.
Sometimes, in an untangled moment,
the real attaches itself to our attention,
and we really listen to something else’s story.

We can expand that moment, if we stay still, stop talking.
Good luck with that.

 Yet something rises up when we listen to the story
under the surface glitter and distraction of our daily moments.

And we rise up also, in awe.

This dream image originated in the process I used to create the Journey Oracle deck.  So why go on a journey?  We might be able to go beyond what we think we know about ourselves, and glimpse the mystery of who we really are.  When we pause to absorb and integrate a new story, we discover we can literally see a situation with new eyes.