A Life of Wonder

A ritual of water and fire, purity and focus, I have become what I do in the silence of not knowing. A ritual of the every day. The release that happens when the mind is disengaged. The simple movements which are larger than this life, the movements of ancestors, the familiar sounds and songs that fill our lungs and give us tribal meaning. Never once did I question that placement of my hand near my heart, and the water on my head. The numbers that matter to You, the times I repeated everyday gestures and whispered sacred words to be closer to the stillness imagined or real. How can I know what I am when I never stop moving, never stop striving. In the morning light, I refuse anything with a screen, a plug, a source of power other than the earth—and I repeat ancient mantras I learned as a child, before words held meaning.

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Thinking about tone today: how it changes through relationships and cultures and what we can learn about tone by watching someone interacting with their parents or childhood friends.

What is a “natural” vs. “affected” tone, and how does it change with written language, spoken words, and song.

Just as some people have more tone sensitivity when they sing, do others have more tone sensitivity when the speak–and can this be cultivated? Are their cultures with tones that sound more soothing or aggressive naturally?

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Have you wondered what you will do when everything you experience is searchable? 

When every word spoken is transcribed in a great book, what words would you search for?  If you could not search for familiar names of people, what then? 

And when you can search every image that ever was: 

• Your mother’s face when your newborn eyes open

• That December day when the snow fell on top of New York’s first street lamp 
• Or what the giant pre-historical trees saw with the great animals dancing below them 

What would you search for then? 

In the boombox recording all of your unexpressed thoughts, which would you want to play? 

It will all be knowable & searchable: what, then, do you yearn for? 

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We all have a relationship with our photos. We even remember parts of our childhood by recalling the photos that captured it. Yet we don’t have the same relationship with our voices. Have you noticed your voice evolves as you age: the inflection changes, the confidence, tone, and pitch?

Try for a minute to describe your voice.  Write down 3-5 words that you associate with it? Are those the same words that describe your personality?

What is true to you which isn’t revealed by your voice? What used to be true of your voice by is no longer? If you were to change how you sound what changes would you make? If your voice is that close to you identity, why don’t you capture it more often—frame it in an “audio gallery” to show your kids one day?

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