Quiet, be quiet

6. Take time to be Quiet

 http://www.purposefairy.com/6661/change-your-life-through-the-art-of-self-mastery/

Purposefairy and I look at quiet differently.  She sees it as a way to speed up your day.

"Solitude, contemplation, meditation helps speed up things, helping you attract more of the things you love and need at a faster rate, because you see, just like Aristotle said it, Contemplation is the highest form of activity."

My perspective is meditation, solitude, contemplation, prayer allows me to slow down for just a moment.  My upbringing demanded that I was constantly doing.  A list of tasks met me everyday and if I was sitting quietly than I needed more tasks.  The hectic hubbub of modern living is race to this, run to that, plug in the head phones with constant noise, TV blaring, commercials demanding, noise and more noise everywhere.  I do not need my life sped up any more than it is right now.  Another aspect is quiet solitude is fairly new to me.  Before integration, inside myself was never quiet.  The constant internal chatter could be deafening. I used music, TV, or any other sound to drown out the cacophony of my own mind.  Integration coincided with my ability to find quiet.  Very spooky at first, similar to the silence the day after Mount St. Helen's exploded and spread ash across the state of Washington.  We lived in Spokane at the time.  The TV informed us to stay in doors with a $500 fine if you got on the freeway.  We went outside, not a bird chirped, not a dog bark, the freeway was silent, we whispered outside for fear of breaking the silence.  Solitude, alone, quiet....be quiet.

5 - 10 minutes a day to sit quietly.  Listen to my heart beat.  Listen.  Years ago a speaker talked about prayers not being answered.  He proposed the idea that we do not take the time to listen.  He suggested that the next time I prayed that I then sit quietly to give God a chance to tell me what I need to know.  At the time, I couldn't comprehend... a lot has changed since that long ago speech.  Quiet time on the freeway in slow moving traffic I turn off the radio and allow the quiet to cloak my mind.  In the quiet, the still small voice can whisper to me.

 1 King 19:11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:

 12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

Five to ten minutes a day be quiet...listen...still small voice.  

Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God:

It is in the quiet of my mind that I find peace.  If I pray for an answer, do I take the time to listen for the answer?  If I hear an answer, do I apply it in my life?

Isaiah 28:9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

 10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

I know that sometimes I don't want to listen. I don't want the answer... wait, not right now, are you really ready for this answer?   Contemplation is an opportunity for me to listen to the whisperings of the still small voice.  Sometimes what He has to say is hard for me to hear.  Time to be quiet.