Noise Pollution

You know those times when you are walking down the street and you are assailed by such a cacophony of sound that you cannot differentiate between them?

When I was studying at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts I lived in downtown Vancouver, close to Granville Island. It is a beautiful spot but it is located under the Granville Street Bridge where traffic never ceases. I remember heading home on one particular evening where the traffic noise was horrendous and seemed drown out every other sound of beauty. But as I walked along I became aware of the music of thousands of birds that were resting under the bridge. While they rested they sang and that song rose above the noise pollution of the traffic. Sweet indeed.

I have been reading the passage in Matthew 15 on What Pollutes Your Life, and not being able to figure it out. Then yesterday I read a piece in Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen. He writes, You will discover a cry welling up from the depths of the human heart that has remained unheard because there was no one to listen. Parker Palmer wrote It often takes years for our hearts to speak, and when they do we often cannot hear them, having been deafened by the system… He was also quoting the Woodcarver poem when he wrote, At every possible level…(he would) forget the externals so that he could remember his inner truth.

Jesus said“These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn’t in it. They act like they’re worshipping me, but they don’t mean it. They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy.”

Noise pollution. It’s the rhetoric and the show that doesn’t say much at all – it just becomes noise pollution. All the noise that is the traffic of life in the heart drowns out the true voice of our heart. How many of us have lived silently screaming on the inside but unable to voice any of it? How many of us have yearned for the heart to speak and be heard but no one seems to be listening?

This morning my usual early morning waking hour was pushed forward – I feel it arrived prematurely but there is a restlessness inside me. I am seeking stillness yet it isn’t coming; or rather I am not sitting in it. My heart is restless; it seeks a place to speak its truth yet it is pacing around. I wrestled about writing these thoughts until I was still but perhaps I can put them out because I realize I am wrestling with noise pollution. I am wrestling with the traffic of my own thoughts. What I need is those wide-open spaces of sacred space where there are unlimited horizons, where no emotion is off limits and no noise pollution can get in the way of their raw honesty. It is a lovely wide-open field – sacred space that is free from noise pollution. And as the Palmer says it is a place to re-member: reunite that hidden wholeness that is so easily torn apart within.