Speaker:
Amy Martin: It's a cloudy
Speaker:
Amy Martin: December evening.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: It's getting dark, fast.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: And
Speaker:
Amy Martin: I'm next to Rattlesnake Creek
Speaker:
Amy Martin: outside of Missoula, Montana.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: And
Speaker:
Amy Martin: this is what we call a quiet
Speaker:
Amy Martin: place.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: And it's really not that quiet
Speaker:
Amy Martin: because the creek
Speaker:
Amy Martin: is rushing along.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: This is partly why
Speaker:
Amy Martin: I wanted to do a whole season
Speaker:
Amy Martin: about listening is that
Speaker:
Amy Martin: when we actually start to
Speaker:
Amy Martin: listen
Speaker:
Amy Martin: places or
Speaker:
Amy Martin: creatures or
Speaker:
Amy Martin: plants
Speaker:
Amy Martin: that we consider to be quiet
Speaker:
Amy Martin: or silent even,
Speaker:
Amy Martin: it turns out they have voices.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: They're talking.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: They have things to say
Speaker:
Amy Martin: and so
Speaker:
Amy Martin: often what we
Speaker:
Amy Martin: define as a quiet
Speaker:
Amy Martin: place is really just
Speaker:
Amy Martin: a place we haven't listened to
Speaker:
Amy Martin: very well yet.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: I think often what we mean is
Speaker:
Amy Martin: just a place where we're not
Speaker:
Amy Martin: intruding with our sound.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: It's not that the place
Speaker:
Amy Martin: is quiet. It's that I'm quiet
Speaker:
Amy Martin: in the place.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: Quiet enough that I can
Speaker:
Amy Martin: actually hear it.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: And I
Speaker:
Amy Martin: actually brought a book out
Speaker:
Amy Martin: here with me.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: It's by Tich Nhat Hanh.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: And it's
Speaker:
Amy Martin: called Silence:
Speaker:
Amy Martin: The Power of Quiet in a World
Speaker:
Amy Martin: Full of Noise.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: And the whole book is
Speaker:
Amy Martin: phenomenal.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: I highly recommend it, but um,
Speaker:
Amy Martin: here's the first few paragraphs.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: We spend a lot of time looking
Speaker:
Amy Martin: for happiness when the world
Speaker:
Amy Martin: right around us is full
Speaker:
Amy Martin: of wonder.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: To be alive and walk on the
Speaker:
Amy Martin: earth is a miracle.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: And yet most of us are running
Speaker:
Amy Martin: as if there were some better
Speaker:
Amy Martin: place to get to.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: There's beauty calling to us
Speaker:
Amy Martin: every day, every hour.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: But we are rarely in a position
Speaker:
Amy Martin: to listen.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: The basic condition for us to
Speaker:
Amy Martin: be able to hear the call of
Speaker:
Amy Martin: beauty and respond to it
Speaker:
Amy Martin: is silence.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: If we don't have silence in
Speaker:
Amy Martin: ourselves, if our
Speaker:
Amy Martin: mind, our body are full
Speaker:
Amy Martin: of noise,
Speaker:
Amy Martin: then we can't hear beauty's
Speaker:
Amy Martin: call.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: So it's time for us to actually
Speaker:
Amy Martin: get a little quiet ourselves on
Speaker:
Amy Martin: the podcast feed.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: We're going to take a break,
Speaker:
Amy Martin: take a deep breath, encourage
Speaker:
Amy Martin: you to do the same.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: We will be back with
Speaker:
Amy Martin: a lot more episodes,
Speaker:
Amy Martin: like a lot more.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: But we're going to press
Speaker:
Amy Martin: pause for a minute.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: If you have any questions for
Speaker:
Amy Martin: us about how we're
Speaker:
Amy Martin: making this season or anything
Speaker:
Amy Martin: you've heard on the season or
Speaker:
Amy Martin: anything at all really,
Speaker:
Amy Martin: send them to us.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: We're going to do an Ask Me
Speaker:
Amy Martin: Anything episode soon and
Speaker:
Amy Martin: your questions are going to be
Speaker:
Amy Martin: the heart of that episode.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: So send any questions
Speaker:
Amy Martin: you may have to outreach@
Speaker:
Amy Martin: thresholdpodcast.org,
Speaker:
Amy Martin: and we'll do our best to answer
Speaker:
Amy Martin: them in that episode
Speaker:
Amy Martin: and enjoy some quiet.
Speaker:
Amy Martin: Thanks for listening.
