Turn Off the Static

How Easy It Would Have Been

After a fun and eventful visit this past June that included a high school graduation, a wedding, and time with family in New York and Connecticut, I settled in to my seat for the plane ride home to Arizona. Since the flight is four and a half hours, I put on my noise-canceling headphones. Whether it’s to mute the engine or listen to music, I find they make a difference for longer flights.

Happily, an in-flight movie was playing but there was just one problem: static. I turned the dial inside the arm of my seat. Every station had static. I eyed my neighbor, noticed he was reading, and considered asking him if I could connect my headset to his armrest but quickly rejected the idea of being an annoying seatmate. I settled for watching the movie despite the distortion and strained my ears to hear the dialogue for two hours.

As the movie ended and the closing credits were rolling, I turned off my headphones and was about to remove them when I realized the static was completely gone. It wasn’t the plane’s audio system; the culprit had been the faltering battery in my noise-canceling headphones!

I had to laugh at this late discovery: With one switch I could have turned off the static and had clarity the whole time.

To Turn Off the Static

You know where I’m going next. This story is a metaphor for how you deal with static in your daily life. Static is the interference that prevents you from listening to your inner guidance.

How do you filter out the noise so you can hear more clearly? Hitting the off switch may be easier than you think.

And Tune In to the Current

In our recent series about the importance of Trust, we looked at how Trusting opens possibilities, aids in decisions, and provides courage to move forward. In the next few issues, we’ll explore Listening. Trusting and Listening are closely connected. To trust, you have to listen. To listen and be able to hear clearly, you need to turn off the static.

This Week’s Call To Action:

• What’s one way you can practice turning off the static? Like the switch on my noise-canceling headphones that was within reach the whole time, look for the easy things you can do to eliminate whatever interferes with clarity.

  Turn off the static. Tune in to the current.