PRACTICE: Sit for a few minutes, listen and name the sounds you hear including silence.
Every movie or TV show has a soundtrack. The soundtrack adds to the depth of the production. Soundtracks win awards even when the movie for which it was scored doesn’t. If you thought for a moment, you might realize that the dialogue, sound effects and the music are recorded separately and then meshed to produce the final product.
Not that my life is a movie or tv show, but I have become more cognizant of the make up of my day – the location, dialogue, sound effects, music. The location of my life is consistent. Usually, I am awake before alarm sounds. Slowly, I register the sounds of the house – the hum of the refrigerator or the heating system and if my husband is still asleep, his slow, steady breathing is integrated into the house sounds. There is a quietness/peacefulness that is indescribable.
This is the opening of my day. These moments are relished and then the alarm chimes. The whole mood changes. I picked the sound but now feel a need to change it. It is irritating and disrupts the atmosphere – oh wait! – isn’t that the purpose. In the movies, music can alert the viewer that something is about to happen even before the dialogue is introduced. My alarm says, “adventure begins now.”
Most of my days are a disorganized composite of dialogue, sound effects and music – much like your favorite movie before a skilled producer brought order to it. I am the producer of my daily show and its multiple episodes. It is my responsibility to produce the product that I want.
I love upbeat funky music for working out but sometimes I choose silence. The dialogue in the soundtrack is my heavy breathing and the sound effects are from re-racking the weights and my footsteps on the floor.
As the day progresses, I am unable to script the dialogue of others. However, I can script my response… a pause/pregnant moment before responding to a rude retail clerk can change the entire trajectory of an encounter. The best conversationalist are most often the best listeners not the most verbose. The dialogue of my show changes when I listen more and talk less. Sometimes the music is instrumental and soothing, other times it is loud and wild.
The trek to well-balanced living requires one to assess and address all aspects of life, not necessarily simultaneously. Change one thing at a time and then put it all together. Your soundtrack is laid.
Oh yeah! The soundtrack changes daily. Sometimes it is mostly the garbage truck.
Proverbs 4:23
PONDER THIS THOUGHT---My current soundtrack could be used in a _____ movie.
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