“A voice is a human gift; it should be…” (Great Work quote)
“A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used,
to utter fully human speech as possible.
Powerlessness and silence go together.”
~ Margaret Atwood
I’m a communicator of sorts – I write, I give talks, I facilitate, I Twitter, I show up in the world.
Atwood’s quote hooked me this week, because it shifted my attention away from all the communication – the non-silence, if you like – that I put out into the world and towards the places where I’m silent.
It makes me ask myself
- What am I being silent about? About myself, about the world? And where is that powerless?
- What am I talking about? How is that distracting me and others from what matters?
There’s an awful lot of noise around right now, and escape from the clamor can be a blessing. (I’ve just had a week “offline” and quite frankly, it was lovely.) But I want to get clear on where I want silence and where I want noise, and what each of those qualities look like.
How about you? How’s your balance between noise and silence?
- “Creativity — like human life itself — begins in darkness” [Great Work Quote]
- “…scar tissue all over my body…” (Great Work quote)
- “timidity will do a thousand times more damage…” (Great Work quote)
- “You don’t learn by your mistakes…” (Great Work quote)
- “just better than I was yesterday…” (Great Work quote)
What an invitation to intentional non-silence!
I used to work in a noisy open-plan workplace, and needed great amounts of silence to recapture my thoughts, and my sense of self. Now I work from home, I am mostly intentional about everything, and my days are silent if I do not reach out. And too much silence for me leads to too much internal chatter, second guessing my thoughts, observing my second guessing, obsessing about how I turn in circles. So I have to seek the balance between silence and noise; reaching out and turning in; finding peace and seeking stimulation – every day.
And, there is the deeper question you pose about what am I being silent about. I realise I need to ensure both my noise and my silence are bringing me life and clarity, and helping me in reaching my goals… If silence is timidity, not having difficult conversations, not being clear – then it is unhelpful. If noise is chatter, covering up with business the lack of substance, and not giving me energy and stimulation, than that too is unhelpful.
Thanks for provoking these thoughts!