Silence & Sound & A Word Cloud

Jun 23, 2024

Hi Everyone - I’m only doing my Sunday posts twice a month. But a really lovely conversation happened in the comment section of The Bookmobile - In Praise of Librarians & The American Public Library System). I created a WordCloud so you can see a graphic representation of many of the thoughts, words and ideas that threaded through our conversation.

I loved that in a conversation about libraries and librarians that changed our lives the most used words included not just “library” and “books” but also reading, thanks, remember, people, life, beautiful, book, memories, learning, think, know, amazing, read, gift and loved. Thank you everyone for reading and for commenting with your own stories and remembrances.

Take More Time,Cover Less Ground

Side Note: I’m spending this weekend at The Abbey of Gethsemani where the mystic monk, Thomas Merton, lived and wrote. It’s beautiful and very peaceful here and this morning I was invited (with a group of fascinating people) to visit the hermitage where Merton lived. It was lovely sitting on the front porch looking out the woods and fields surrounding the cottage talking about books, poetry, scholarship, community and activism. Being in this intentionally quiet setting I am reminded how randomly noisy our modern world can be. Don’t get me wrong, I love sounds like music and birds, and belly laughs and tea kettles and the snip of garden sheers and a train in the distance and a dog snoring and the splash of a fish as it slips back into the deep end of the pond. But being in a place of quiet and daily contemplative practice I’m taken by my sense of relief at intentionally clearing some of the more random audio brush from all the spaces it fills.

I think when I return home, I’ll appreciate sound more deeply and silence more profoundly.

Anyway….more next week my friends.

Carrie

This Week’s Practice:

Take some time to appreciate the quiet and the sounds you love. Take your journal and write down a list of sounds that make you smile. Then pick out one and remember the last time you heard it. Close your eyes and breathe deeply while remembering that wonderful sound.

Now on the in-breath say, “ I am grateful“ breathe out “for all the sounds I love” on the next in-breath say, “I am grateful” and on the out breath “for all that quiets my heart.”

Question

Did you do the practice? What happened? If you feel like sharing, let us know about the silences and sounds you love.

Shows in July & August

Hi Folks, I’m doing very limited shows this summer, but I have three special events in July and August. You can get more information on my website tour page www.carrienewcomer.com/tour

This Week Last Year

On This Day in 2023, I was helping create The Great Wild Mercy Video with Elle Hodge and Kayla Behforouz! The song has just been recorded and we had so much fun creating this stop action video. Every frame hand created and placed. Here it is again…sooooo fun.

“I’m tired of all the rage, tired of all the worry, I’m ready for a Great Wild Mercy.”

Amen then…Amen now.