The other day I had the privilege of walking into a beautiful forest with ten children under the cover of silence. Their challenge was to walk to the rocky outcrops where we would have lunch, without talking. I had suggested to them that we wouldn't talk if we were watching a movie, so we could try going in with the same attention. The veil of silence allowed us to experience the natural setting at a higher frequency; immersing us all deeply and quickly. As we walked the sounds of the forest turned to music, as if our silence was communicating a willingness to hear. Like a radio station tuned in with the slightest turn of the dial, birds song filled the air and we could even hear the trees cracking and rubbing together. When we arrived at the rocks a bliss had descended over us and we were all smiling deeply. We were experiencing a spiritual high.
When we returned to the school we were introduced to an Aboriginal song that an Elder had given us saying she wanted it to be sung along with our national anthem. It is a beautiful song that literally translated means, "Welcome friends, welcome good friends". I stood looking at these cultures polarized by this difference in digesting information; our culture needs so much more explanation, measurement and analysis. It is head-based and we are required to endlessly collate, relate and translate the world back to each other. The indigenous culture sees this polarity more clearly than we do, they even laugh about it being the 'white-fella way'. The indigenous cultures are much more deeply connected to their heart spaces; their song needed only to say "welcome friends", the rest is left to love which cannot be measured and needs no translation.
For all our intellectualism, we are blocked by a simple bias that tells us deeply that we are the culture that is smart and they are the culture that remained primitive. Our thoughts are necessary and our need to communicate is essential. We now have technology overlaying the industrial revolution and we are further imprisoning ourselves by our collective obsession with it. This age of technology comes with great opportunity to communicate but it also brings us the shadow of our culture which has been ravaged of its heart center and with every generation has further activated the mind; perhaps eroding and blocking the truly extraordinary experience of being alive. We might take time to listen to the beat of out hearts and remember we are here to connect with the Earth and each other. Technology needs to be actively put in the back seat.
We spoke more deeply when we used less words.
