Silence and the Space Between

In the introduction of singer songwriter Natalie Merchant’s recent masterwork, Leave Your Sleep (Nonesuch Records, 2010), she suggests, “The poet’s work is putting silence around everything worth remembering.”  For me, Merchant’s claim summoned the lesson I learned (the hard way) to ski in the steep and deep forests of the Canadian Rockies: once you quit looking at the trees and focus on the white spaces between them you can manage quite well – and appreciate the trees all the more.  The poet’s silence and skier’s ‘space between’ are as important, if not more so, than the words and trees if we are to both navigate and enjoy an abundant life while making our particular contribution to our ‘place’ (however defined).  Making room for silence and focusing on where we want to go (rather than what might be in the way) requires a discipline of calm and confidence.  And, it opens our minds to new possibilities to face what may be unwelcome and unfamiliar challenges.

            Over the next few posts, I will be offering what I believe are necessary adjustments in our perspectives and practices as Americans and citizens of the world. I’ll discuss collective action, will, complexity & risk, power & security, and well being over net worth – as well as whatever else reveals itself in the process.  Tools to make sense of and maybe even succeed in a world that is presenting curious and perplexing risks.  The underlying premise is that most great things happen as a result of one person who has an idea that collides with passion to cause unforeseen and unimaginable transformation.  They are generally obscure no-names who become transformative leaders.  People like you and yours.  They operate in the silence and the space between until, as if by magic, they change the world.

            Until next week …