The sound of the world

All of today's technical stuff  can be pretty cool. Like my iPod. I can listen anywhere at anytime to music or audio books. 
How great!
I don’t have to spend a lot of time in the evening to get on with my literature – I can do it everywhere and “read” while I am on a train, plane or bus, brush my teeth, do the washing up, work out, shop food, do my laundry, cook my dinner or while I am just on the go.

So, when doing something I have to do anyway and that doesn’t require my whole concentration, I started plugging in my headphones and listening to an audio book.

That’s really easy and convenient.

After a couple of months though, I realised that my thoughts where always about my book – never about the present moment. When your mind is constantly concerned with something else, you lose track of the real world about you and stop worshipping it.

It’s kind of  like having a conversation while listening to an audio book: you are not really deep into it. You just experience the other person you are talking to half-heartedly. (Plus, It would be very impolite.)

If you experience a moment, you also partly miss it when your mind is concerned with other things. This can also happen when you  “day dream” or think about loads of stuff. But daydreaming is something that happens unintentionally out of inspiration. Listening to music or an audio book is a conscious decision. A decision that that leads to a lost of quiet moments on your own.

I now decided to listen less to my iPod and, when walking my daily route to the university or to the supermarket, just listen to the sounds around me instead. Beforehand, I considered them boring and unimportant.

I forgot how the world around me sounds.

Now I started to listen more carefully.

I listen to the branch stream I cross every day, the birds, the wind, my steps, strangers around me and even to construction sides and traffic noises.

And I realise how much more exciting it can be than listening to my iPod.

PS: I guess all the authors of those novels I listen to also would not have spend their lifetime listening to their iPods but experienced the moment – where else would they have got all the inspiration from? :)
It’s not like I locked my iPod completely away. I still listen to my audio books, but mostly at the gym, when I do not want to think about the current moment much because working out on the cross trainer is kind of boring.