Tall pine trunks stand beside a still pond, with a grassy hillside beyond the water.

Slow Down and Listen!

by

“Words are the voice of the heart.” – Confucius

That line opens this morning’s reading in Keep It Simple, shared in Daily Ponderables, and it asks a question most of us rush right past: “What does my heart have to say today?”

Most days we never stop long enough to find out. The phone buzzes, the coffee’s gone, the to-do list is already yelling. We pray on the run, if we pray at all, and then wonder why we feel scattered by noon.

Today’s readings all point in the same direction. Slow down. Get quiet. Listen.

Meditation is listening

The Keep It Simple writer puts it about as plainly as it can be put: “Meditation is listening. Our spirit is but a quiet whisper inside us. To hear we must quiet ourselves.”

A whisper. Not a siren. That’s why it’s so easy to miss. If we only notice God, or our own heart, when life is shouting at us, we’re missing most of the conversation. I love the prayer that goes with today’s page: “Higher Power, teach me to slow down. Teach me to hear Your whisper as well as Your yells.”

Scripture says it simply: “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10 (ESV). Stillness isn’t wasted time. It’s where knowing happens.

A circle with no wrong starting point

Today’s reading in Daily Reflections is titled “Focusing and Listening,” and it starts with a line from Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions: “There is a direct linkage among self-examination, meditation, and prayer.”

Some people start with prayer. Some start by sitting quietly and listening. Others start by writing an honest look at their day. The writer says these practices form a circle, and the beautiful part is this: “no matter where, or how, I start, I eventually arrive at my destination: a better life.”

So there’s no perfect method to master before you begin. Start anywhere. Just start.

Writing became one of my entry points. Years ago, in Writing Brings Clarity, I shared that when I began my recovery journey, it was suggested I spend some time every morning in “prayer and meditation,” and I took that advice seriously. Writing came later, and it became part of the same circle. As I put it then, “Writing is freedom; informed writing is spiritual!”

God gives us what we need for the day

The Dynamic Catholic Daily Reflection this morning quoted St. Gregory of Nyssa: “Who gives you the day will give you also the things necessary for the day.”

That’s a wonderful thing to hear before the day gets loud. We don’t have to carry tomorrow’s strength around today. We just have to ask for today’s.

Twenty-Four Hours a Day makes the same point in its Meditation for the Day. “God’s power is blocked off from us by our indifference to it.” Then comes the hopeful part: “When we sincerely ask God for it, we get it abundantly.” The day’s prayer is short enough to memorize: “I pray that I may will to have God’s power. I pray that I may keep praying for the strength I need.”

Notice the word “keep.” Listening isn’t a one-time event. It’s a daily practice, like brushing your teeth or making your bed.

Stop before you spin

A while back, a reader asked me what staying in the moment meant to me. My answer, in Staying in the Moment, was a simple acronym for when the pressure rises. I STOP: “Stay Still and Breathe. Take an inventory of what is really happening or could happen. Orient myself to the FACT that I am ok right here and now and that is all I can control. Pray!”

Look at that list again. Stillness, self-examination, and prayer. It’s the same circle the Daily Reflections writer describes, in a form you can use in a traffic jam.

Your Daily Reprieve offered a matching Thought to Consider this morning: “This day I choose to spend in perfect peace.” Peace is a choice we make again and again, one quiet minute at a time.

Five ways to slow down and listen today

  1. Take five before the phone. Before you check a single message, sit for five minutes. Breathe. Ask, “What does my heart have to say today?”
  2. Pick your starting point. Pray, sit in silence, or write. Any door into the circle works. Use the one that’s open to you today.
  3. Write three honest lines. What am I feeling? What do I need? What’s mine to do today? That’s self-examination you can finish before breakfast.
  4. Ask for today’s strength only. Not this week’s. Not this year’s. Just enough for today.
  5. Use STOP when the noise rises. Stay still, take inventory, orient to right now, and pray. Then take the next right action. In Success-Full I wrote, “No action, no change, know action, know change!” Listening and doing go together.

The whisper is worth hearing

After more than 40 years in human services, I’ve noticed that the people who grow the most in recovery aren’t always the loudest or the busiest. They’re the ones who make room every day to get quiet and listen, and then act on what they hear.

The whisper is there. It’s patient, it’s kind, and it’s on your side. Slow down long enough to hear it. Life is GOOOOOOOD!!!

Here’s my question: Where in your day can you find five quiet minutes to listen, and what do you think you’ll hear?

Go, Go, Go… Dan 🙂

Books quoted in this post:

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A note on anonymity: Although I quote Alcoholics Anonymous literature here, nothing in this post should be taken to imply my membership in any specific mutual support group, in keeping with Tradition Eleven.

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Reflection note: I wrote this from my own daily readings. Quotes belong to their original authors and sources (Keep It Simple, November 3, Hazelden, including Confucius, and Daily Reflections, November 3, quoting Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 98, via Daily Ponderables; St. Gregory of Nyssa via the Dynamic Catholic Daily Reflection, November 3; the Thought to Consider via Your Daily Reprieve, November 3; Twenty-Four Hours a Day, November 3, Hazelden; Psalm 46:10, English Standard Version; Success-Full). I used AI to help organize it and reviewed it before posting.