Life is full of noise.
Colour.  Movement.  Vibration.
Hotness and coldness.  Nearness and farness.
Aloneness and never aloneness.  Calmness and freneticness.  Life is full.

When I do my weekly commute I pop headphones on and crank up the volume. Forty minutes of train travel.  Five minutes walking.  Twenty minutes of tube travel.  Three minutes of walking.  Sixty eight minutes of Dire Straits going and forty minutes returning.

My weekly treat.

On the tube the grinding of wheels on curved tracks overpowers the music.  Maybe for a few seconds.  Maybe for more than a few seconds.  Maybe for many seconds.  But I know the song is there, I mentally sing what I cannot hear, the music and I are not separated.

– – – – – – – – – –

I have never retreated as I hear others retreat.
Or maybe I have as I pause for a few minutes
With a page and a verse and a chat or two.
So to this from Sacred Space caught my eye:

I need to close out the noise, to rise above the noise;
The noise that interrupts, that separates,
The noise that isolates.
I need to listen to God again.

Is this retreating I ask myself
Is this necessary I meander
Is this how I grow closer I wonder

– – – – – – – – – –

Well yes and no
I heard a voice
If you need to hear my voice and nothing else
Like now you mean just you and me
Well yes.  And no.  As you well know.
And I knew well yes and knew why no …

Amidst the noise and pace of life
Amidst the noise and speed I know
Love kindness bond connected
Embrace and care so unexpected.

That’s it I think
I heard a voice
Your hearing is not just of sound
Our words are not yours or mine
They are becoming almost instantly ours
Just like hearing is seeing
And feeling and connection
And words are actions
And doing and being and “is”
The “is” of desire, the being of light
Joined as one
Of one
In One
Noise is not noise
Just living and loving
Joined as one
Of one
In One

(even the sound of laughter and giggles
is the same one of one in One)

Goodnight Paul
Goodnight GSHJ

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