Tuesday 16 June 2009

The Miracles of Silence: Part 1

I was working with Stuart a few mornings ago. After 45 minutes of trying to follow an agenda, we were still unfocused and unproductive. Then I remembered 'silence'...

So I sat back! I stopped speaking, chasing the agenda, filling the silences... and I started to listen. I kept on listening, even when Stuart said nothing. It always seems easier to say something to fill those silences, but this time I decided to simply accept the silence: to embrace the adventure it brought.

And silence does bring an adventure! At first, it's awkward being silent. There is a desire to burble into the silence, to mask it, to pretend we're not self-conscious... It did take some courage to sit together without speaking to fill the gap. Words without purpose, with little meaning... just filling the space.

And then the miracle occured... for a minute, two at most, we just sat in silence. Nature hates a vacuum, and in popped an idea. We had been so busy chattering, the idea had had no space before that. But in the silence, Stuart heard it and we were off!

It was our best session ever, funnily enough!

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