Are You Listening to Your Life – TheDavoShow027

If we want our lives to get better,

we have to stop distracting,

and make the effort to change.

I came across this quote today and realized it’s a good explanation of what I’m trying to do with this podcast experiment.

“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”** -Frederick Buechner

How Do You Listen to You Life?

• What senses do you use to do it?
  
• How do you make time to listen every day?
  
• How do you get distracted, so the listening doesn’t happen?
  
• What small step can you make to slow down and listen?
  
• If you are already listening, what is your life telling you right now?
  

What Is The Davo Show?

• Examples from Living Life to the Fullest
  
• Connecting with Nature and the Outdoors
  
• Music and Rhythms
  
• David Bourne’s Short Form Audio Shipped from the Field
  
• Quick Experiments in Thought and Sound
  

Listen to This Episode 027

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You can find all of the Davo Show Episodes here…
http://DavidBourne.com/davo/

Rough Transcript

[0:15] In today’s episode, we’re going to listen to a quote from Frederick Buechner. Here goes. 

“Listen to your life.

See it for the fathomless mystery it is. 

In the boredom and the pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness. 

Touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it. 

Because in the last analysis, all moments are key moments and life itself is grace.”

I came across this quote looking in my Dropbox folder and I’m not even sure how I found it, But I thought, you know what? This is exactly what I’m trying to do (with this short podcast).  I’m trying to listen to my life. 

[1:20] I’m listening to crows right now. Something else, I think they’re chimney swifts. 

They’re kind of hard to pin down. 

Buechner talks about the touch, the taste and the smell, Using all your senses to find the holy, H-O-L-Y, holy and hidden part of it. 

So why is it hidden? 

I think it is hidden because we don’t see it.

It’s there all the time but we generally just don’t look for it.

So that fathomless mystery, bottomless mystery, think about that?

Is it ever going to be anything but a mystery?

I mean there are things that we can feel like we’re certain of but then you think about consciousness itself. And that all gets thrown out of the window. 

[2:47] But that’s not really a problem, is it? 

Distraction is Our Main Problem

I think the problem we mostly face is this distraction where we don’t, bother to touch, taste, smell, or listen to our lives. 

But we can change that by deciding to change it. It’s really all it takes. 

So I guess I’ll ask you, how are you listening to your life right now?

[3:24] I think it takes time for sure. You have got to slow down a little bit.

You have got to pay attention a little bit more.

And you got to ask yourself, is it (this distraction) worth it?

Are Your Distractions Worth the Cost?

Well, what are you trying to do? Why are you so busy? Why aren’t you doing that?

Are you, trying to do something so that you will then have the time to do this?

I think that’s too often what we do. We put off this listening, because we’re too busy doing other things, thinking, oh, we’re gonna get to that. 

But we never get to that because the present moment is all we ever have. 

[4:24] I’m saying this not as someone who’s got it all figured out, because I don’t.

But when I saw that quote today, I thought, yeah, that’s it. 

Recording this podcast, writing, paying attention, trying to create something on a regular basis, in a very small way, that’s what this is all about. 

This is what I’m trying to do here. 

So I’m going to read this quote that I came across. 

It’s a good one. So I hope you’ll take that challenge. 

Listen to your life and try to look for that fathomless mystery and see what you find. 

I hope you find something great.