Letting Go.
The closing paragraph in the article linked speaks about the journey we are and the letting go that is required in the earthly part of the journey. There is a spiritual essence to our journey, one that takes us amongst the stars.
Parker Palmer writes extensively about spending time with our self in the quietness and silence of solitude. Here, we listen to what is being said to us by our spirit. We explore the depth and nature of who we are in relationship to the world. We let go of the busyness that surrounds even briefly feeling rested in the effort.
Joyce Sutphen shared the poem How to Listen. She describes the letting go listening requires.
Tilt your head slightly to one side and lift
your eyebrows expectantly. Ask questions.
Delve into the subject at hand or let
things come randomly. Don’t expect answers.
Forget everything you’ve ever done.
Make no comparisons. Simply listen.
Listen with your eyes, as if the story
you are hearing is happening right now.
Listen without blinking, as if a move
might frighten the truth away forever.
Don’t attempt to copy anything down.
Don’t bring a camera or a recorder.
This is your chance to listen carefully.
Your whole life might depend on what you hear.
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About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope and its anticipatory relationship with the future, and hope as an essential element in learning.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
I often wonder about my habit of journaling before and after I sit in silence. I feel that I need to record truths that I hear…..but then I think….if it’s the truth, why do I need to write it? I think it’s all a part of the journey. One more step toward self. Perhaps someday I’ll have no need to write what is already known, but for now, I need to process my soul in this way.
I think Joyce Sutphen, the poet, is suggesting that in the midst of sitting and listening we do not record. Afterwards, we try to recapture the experience of listening, albeit incompletely. That might be where fine art comes from as an expression of the work of listening to the soul.
Hi Ivon, I hope that you are well and enjoying life. I have just returned from a long holiday in Italy. Take care
Tina
I am enjoying life Tina. I imagine Italy was good.
Take care and enjoy.
Ivon
‘Listen without blinking’ – YES!
That is hard to do.
Wise. I like this.
Thank you Emilie.
LOVE this. This is absolutely where I am right now 🙂
Thank you for the lovely comments.
These beautiful words are wonderful. To let go, to relax with the flow of life, and to listen to our soul.
Thankyou
Karen
You are welcome Karen.
Reblogged this on James' World 2.
Thank you for the re-blog James.
You are very welcome sir!
What a beautiful post! I am so grateful for your blog, it is so gentle and uplifting.
I love the line in the poem about not bringing a camera. I find that I cannot absorb an event fully as I’d like if I’m more worried about ‘capturing it.’ There is just something about the memory of the experience in my mind that feels most important, to be present in it.
Thank you for your spirit and light!
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a lovely comment Allison. You are welcome.
So very beautiful!
Love, love the poem♥ – especially how it effortlessly slips into how we slow down to be mindfully present when being blessed with the company of a friend who chooses to share her or his thoughts with us.
Your site is a wonderful haven of light and serenity of mind and heart, my friend and I am glad to have found your work here.
Do take care and stay inspiring, too 🙂
Thank you for the lovely comments and stopping by.