Time to Think

Dear Friend,

This past week I have realized something, in Indonesia I hear myself think, and I think a lot.

Last Saturday I went to the mall with a friend and her boyfriend and his cousin. We were eating lunch and they started talking in Bahasa Indonesia. It doesn't bother me at all when people talk in a language I don't understand. I actually enjoy it because I find myself zoning and out thinking. Because there isn't anyone having a conversation that my brain needs to concentrate on, my mind is free to think. I really enjoy being able to think.

In this age and time there is so much stimulating us, keeping us away from hearing ourselves think.

In America there is always someone I can be listening to or thinking about. Even when I went walking through my college campus by myself there was always something to listen to. I would hear the person sitting on a rock playing guitar and singing, my mind would think about the tune for the 5 seconds it takes me to walk by, then my ears would tune into the conversation of the two girls laughing on the park bench, next my eyes focus on the group piling into a car and my mind begins to wonder where they are going. Eventually I am sitting in my car, I plug in my i-tunes or turn on the radio. I think about the songs that come on through my shuffle, but I don't ever sit in silence to think.

When it is silent with nothing fighting my brain for my attention, then I can think and hear my thoughts, I can wonder and problem solve. In Indonesia, even if it is not silent, the words are not activating my brain, so it becomes white noise and I am able to think. Really Think. Not day-dream and imagine myself doing crazy fun things with crazy fun people. But actually think.

Anyways,
I must be off.

Your friend,
Rebekah

P.S. So this post didn't have the typically funny Becka~ness in it. So if you want to see me having fun with my sister and being crazy... watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FyphqVcB3Q