Monday
"I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen
"And accrue what I hear into myself. . . . and let sounds
contribute toward me."
• Try responding as concisely as possible to the things people say to you. Put your attention on listening, rather than speech.
"I swear I see what is better than to tell the best,
It is always to leave the best untold."
• Use as many nonverbal modes of expression as you have at your command. Consider communicating via facial expressions, gifts, your choice of clothing. Have fun!
"I swear I begin to see little or nothing in audible words,
All merges toward the presentation of the unspoken meanings of the earth,
Toward him who sings the songs of the body and of the truths of the earth,
Toward him who makes the dictionaries of words that print cannot touch."
• Instead of saying kind things to people, do kind things. Open a door for someone, smile, do a favor . . .
"What do you seek so pensive and silent?"
• Silence holds all things. Find a place to absorb what it has to tell you.
"Writing and talk do not prove me,
I carry the plenum of proof and every thing else in my face,
With the hush of my lips I wholly confound the skeptic."
• How often is your speech motivated by the need to have the attention of others? When you sense someone else doing this, find a way to give them the validation they want.
"When the subtle air, the impalpable, the sense that words and reason hold not, surround us and pervade us,
Then I am charged with untold and untellable wisdom, I am silent, I require nothing further"
• In your experiments with expressing yourself nonverbally this week, what effect did this have on your relationships? On your interior life? Consider whether it might be worthwhile to do this more often.
• In silence is fullness and mystery. The wild unknown, and the language of the heart. It is where we go when words can no longer express what we need to say, and from it may come our most honest communication.
