Every person talking to us including ourselves,

is the sound of a bell ringing in us.

Every situation that we observe,

is the sound of many bells ringing in us,

as we observe many and hear many.

Which bell do we hear and when,

depends on the sound of the bell and whose we are more tuned to.

Many times, sound of the others’ bells, we can’t but hear,

ears play their role well 🙂

We may hear many a sound of a bell and choose to listen to just one,

That listening is paying attention.

When the mind is behind the ear, we are listening (not hearing) 🙂

When we are mindful, we are listening.

Mindful listening is therefore an oxymoron, isn’t it?

Living in a society, we all learn to hear and listen to the sound of someone else’s bell,

Why is it that we focus on hearing and listening to the bells from the outside?

Which is harder and needs more effort from us, as we need to break many layers to do that.

Others’ bells, their sounds, their noise – let it remain theirs!!

What do we do when we hear our own bell?

Hear? Listen? or sometimes pretend that we didn’t hear?

or sometimes wonder why the sound of our bell is so loud, is so soft, is so jarring

Sometimes we think the same of the others’ too.

How we wish that we can change its sound!!!

And in the midst of all this hearing and wishing, we no longer listen and enjoy!!

We no longer listen and act!!

Sometimes, we are so mindful about others that we don’t seem to exist for ourselves,

When we don’t exist for ourselves, the sound of our bell also doesn’t,

Oh well!!! How do we listen to someone who doesn’t seem to exist?

Our bell continues its work – making its own sound,

It keeps ringing and clanging, hoping that one day we will listen,

that one day, we will pay attention,

that one day, we will be mindful to it,

that one day we will listen to our own bell and then to listen to that of the others.

that one day, we will ‘hold space’ for ourselves **.

Let’s focus on hearing and listening to the sound of our own bell,

Not that hard and not so much effort.

Sometimes listen to its silence too and stay still with it.

There can’t be a better listener to us, than we ourselves,

There can’t be a better space holder to us, than we ourselves,

To listen to ourselves with no judgments or criticism,

with no feedback or advice,

To be sensitive and compassionate to ourselves.

For that, we need to learn to talk to ourselves, if we aren’t already,

Everything begins with us.

If we are not for ourselves, who will be for us?

Reference note:

The term ‘Holding space’ is from a Linkedin post of a person known to me  – Kalpana Tatavarti.