It comes down to this
The calm lake beckoned. The house was still sleeping as I fixed my coffee, wrapped in a blanket against the early morning chill, and found a perfect spot in an Adirondack chair on the dock over Lake LBJ.
Not a ripple. The houses across the lake reflected perfect mirror images on the water’s surface.
Ah. Exhale. I took a sip of coffee and relished the discovery of this perfect stolen moment in a busy weekend. I started the guided meditation in my favorite app.
Then…
A leaf blower with the whirr of a foghorn on a freight train blasted onto the scene.
And. It. Echoed. Tenfold across the lake.
I tried to stay zen and focus on the meditation guide's muddled voice, only catching every few words. I turned it up, but it was useless. The noise drowned everything out. I plugged my ears with my fingers in hopes it would reduce the noise. I so wanted to enjoy these quiet, stolen moments. I tracked the gardener, willing him to stop, thinking that if only the noise would end, I would find peace.
But, he continued to the next yard. And, then, the next. So, I got pissed at the noise, kept fighting against it, willing it to go away, hoping the damn leaf blower’s battery would die.
Right, so that worked. Not. I had to laugh.
It got me thinking about noise, in all its forms, all the noise around us, all the time. The definition of noise is a sound or thing that is “unpleasant or that causes disturbance.” So, when you think about it, noise is not just physical noise. It’s digital noise, mental noise, and emotional noise. Excess clutter starts to feel loud when it’s too much.
It’s incessant if we let it be.
Turn up the focus to turn down the noise.
An interesting thing happened. As soon as I focused, not on the annoying noise but on following the thought that led to this deeper inquiry — the noise, in essence, disappeared. Of course, it didn’t actually disappear, but it was no longer present in my space, in my sphere of attention. I stopped noticing it.
Two things happened:
I leaned away from the noise instead of focusing on it
I surrendered to the resistance instead of fighting against it
I focused my attention on a specific thought
What happened? Space opened up, room for consideration, for wonderment, for creativity, for expression.
Hmm. Something to think about next time there’s too much noise.