Shh…
Yesterday, Alec Couros was chatting about sense of wholeness. Late last night, I was blogging with Christina about this idea and the notion that more technotlogy is not necerily better, it’s actually debliliateing. I shared with Christina that the best way I find to keep my sense of wholeness is by taking moments of time away. I do this once a year, in a big way. Every
winter I attend a silent retreat weekend. I bring very little with me, other than touiletties and clothes. I do not bring my compouter, mp3 player, phone, camera, books, note papter, or pens. I sit, hike, walk, lay in the snow, eat, sleep, all in silence. Mostly, I listen. I take my ‘time away’ to be still, and to connect.
I am a very wired person. I am an adult learner with ADHD, sometimes it is as though I do not have an off button. However, this constant state of busy is not always healty for me. I learned a long time ago that the best way for me to be well is for me to begin each day in silence, and for me to cultivate moments of solitute.
Perhaps this is why Podcasts have not tweaked my interest. I like driving with the windows downs and listening to the wind. I like driving alone and watching the world go by. I like not being connected to chatter, even if it’s chatter that will help me learn, and I don’t want anything filling the gap in those precious moments of quiet.
I found this Podcast (out of Regina) and it made me smile, ‘ol soccer mom’ that I am: The Beautiful Game
But, because the point was to get us searching, I found a daily podcast that shares my love of writing. I subcribed to the podcast and will listen to it as I sit to check my email. Its the kind of stuff that makes me smarter in all ways: APM: Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac Podcast.
The idea of audio books trills me to my toes. I see so many applications for students with special needs. I spent an hour searching for books to put onto a mp3 player for one of my students who is graduating in eight days. What a great gift!
Photo: Flicker
Great post Cori, I love the quiet moments too so I can relate to that. I think its a great idea to have a retreat like that and not take anything with you except essentials. Also I love how you said you love to roll your car window down and listen to the wind. I am exactly the same way. When my husband and kids are in the car they always want to blast the music. So when I am alone in the car I do the same, just roll down the window and listen to the wind and birds. I think everyone should have down time once in awhile, its so important. I really enjoyed your post it made me feel relaxed. 🙂
I was just wondering, how did you get the clustermaps onto your blog?
ya for Silance!
I struggled with the clustrmap widget a little too. Lance suggested to “add… as a widget once you add your blog as a “project” on the clustrmaps site.” Clustrmaps walks you through the process step by step once you add your blog as a “project.” All that means is follow the directions as they come up on the Clustrmaps site. To add the widget use the ‘text’ tab under widgets in wordress. Does that help? If it doensn’t let me know. I’ll go back and walk you through it step by step.
Thanks Cori, I will try that. You explained it very well. Thanks again.