...so i was thinking recently...

about this experiment we had to do back in high school my...senior year i think? i actually hadn't thought about it for awhile but i went home last weekend and my mom had me share it in her young womens class because they were talking about media and it's influence in our lives.

anyway, for the month of december my seminary class went on our own personal "exodus." every student chose something important to them that they would leave behind for a month. some kids took it as a joke and said they would give up homework. other people took it as...a joke and said they would give up chocolate. i took it...as a joke and said i would give up music. ya right. like i could live without it.

but honestly i tried it...just to see what it would be like. to be daring. y'know. and guess what...i didn't die.

i know weird right?

seriously tho, i made some guidelines so that i didn't completely give it all up...i just wanted to be more...selective. so instead of listening to all my music, i gave up all worldly music. meaning that for the whole month i listened to hymns, classical music, and...efy soundtracks. one. whole. month. and because my selection of this music is somewhat..limited (we're talking like ten cds tops..haha) i did essentially give up music for most of the time. and instead i listened to silence. to clocks ticking. to the voices in my head. to cars driving past me as i went on my nightly runs. to crickets outside my window as i fell asleep. to the rumbling of my dying truck on my way to school....

and as i listened to these strange sorts of silences i discovered something else...that there was a kind of music i had been missing out on, because i always drowned it out with my other tunes. the music of the soul. the music of service. the music of silence and peace.

i found that i had more time to pray- to talk to God. i had more time to sit and reflect on things that i had learned or heard or read or felt during the day. i had more time to be aware of what was going on around me. i had more time to focus on what was important. i noticed other people more. i wanted to love them more, serve them more, i was...nicer. (if you can imagine that)

when the month was over i did get back into my music, not gonna lie. but i have tried to keep the moral of the story with me. i can't let music be everywhere all the time. i can't let it replace the thoughts in my head, the promptings in my heart. i have to be careful to not drown out what really matters.