Eighteen months ago I picked up Thomas L. Friedman’s new book, Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Acceleration.
Acceleration– the act or process of moving faster or happening more quickly.
We all know the feeling, especially now in our 24/7 world; and as Friedman wrote, “uncertain and uncomfortable” but “can also be exhilarating”
Friedman went on to write, “In such a time, opting to pause and reflect, rather than panic or withdraw, is a necessity. It is not a luxury or a distraction – it is a way to increase the odds that you’ll better understand, and engage productively with, the world around you.”
His friend, Dov Seidman, said to him, “but what matters most is what you do in the pause.” He added, “Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best: “in each pause I hear the call”.
Coming across this RWE quote was an “ah ha” moment for me and literally made me pause.
Pause is an interesting word. I wanted to know more.
I used the quote, as written above, in one of my practice meditations for my Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training (MTT) in reference to the breath.
But I was so curious about the quote, it sent me down a rabbit hole.
To begin, I researched this quote wondering what poem this came from and at what age he wrote it in his 60+ years of published writing.
“In each pause we heard the call” is actually what RWE wrote, not the often quoted, “in the pause, I hear the call”.
These are actually the words of a bored student at Harvard in 1818 doodling in his journal.
“How Drearily in College Hall the Doctor stretched the hours. But in each pause we heard the call of robins out of doors”.
Pause– a temporary stop or rest, a hesitation, to dwell or to linger, a temporary inaction
The pause/ the silence, whether in conversation, activities, in action or in meditation can be awkward and uncomfortable.
We are taught to fill the silence, the pause, the void. We are taught when we are together we must talk. There is actually a phobia of silence, Sedatephobia (Sedate: silent, sleeping, dead. Phobia from Phobos, the God of Fear and Dread) .
A 2011 Dutch study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found, “even a brief silence or awkward pause can trigger feelings of rejection” and that a pause of just four (4) seconds in a conversation can make one feel awkward and uncomfortable.
I choose rather to embrace the pause whether it’s the pause in a conversation or the pause between breaths.
Silence is a source of great strength. Lao Tzu
Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom. Francis Bacon
That pause, that silence isn’t emptiness or nothingness. Imagine this space between as a world of possibilities
In one of my favorite books, The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman (2011), she wrote,
“Perhaps it is possible to discover more in silence than in speech. Or perhaps it is only those who are silent among us, learn to listen.”
Listen to the whisper in the pause. Listen to the robin’s singing in the pause. Let me know what you hear.
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