When 30 Minutes Becomes Countercultural
by Tim Anderson
Over the past few years, we have often challenged the students who participate in our outdoor adventure trips to take 10 min to be completely alone and silent. No phones, no talking, just sitting and listening. This exercise, more often than not, is interrupted by laughter or distractions that cause the practice of being silent in nature to fail miserably.
During winter camp in February, we decided to break away from the camps scheduled night activities and take a group of our students on a hike up the mountain in the dark. Some of them were caught off guard by the idea but with some coaxing, we had a solid group of students stumbling up the mountain.
As we reached the top there was a vibrant excitement from the group. We could see the city lights below and the stars above. The wind was blowing and the trees around us were dancing. We invited the students to quiet down and we gave them a 5-minute silence challenge. Expecting the same results as previous trips, we started the timer. As silence fell across the group, in complete darkness on the top of that mountain, we could hear the wind moving through the forest, feel the cold, strong breeze across our faces. The silence was truly beautiful and as the timer ticked down to zero, we knew we were not the only ones to have experienced it. No one had spoken a word, or laughed… or farted. They asked if we could do another 5 minutes and that 5 min turned into another 20.
Before we hiked back down the mountain, we asked the students to think back to the last time they spent 30 minutes in silence. We encouraged them to recognize how they were feeling and what the experience was like for them. We talked about the importance of silence in our daily life routine and not having to fill every empty space with noise. We talked about how it was important to have enough silence to be able to sit with ourselves, in all our joys, in all our pains, in all our swirling thoughts and emotions that often get ignored. We told them how, in our own personal life experience, nature and silence have brought about a unique connection with God and with ourselves and that it was something they could practice in their daily lives.
Solidarity’s outdoor adventure program (Tilt) provides intentional experiences in nature for students from high-risk situations. One of the program’s key ingredients to equip students for transformation is to provide moments of experiential learning and articulation in nature that shift destructive patterns of life into thriving ones. Many times, the students are on wild adventures camping, hiking, fishing, and rock climbing, but, other times, it’s the in-between moments of silence and escape from over-connected, overly busy lives that is needed for transformation.
While Tilt offers students the exciting, adrenaline-pumping experiences, what often gets overlooked are the moments like the story above - the moments that are truly such stark contrasts from the everyday reality of living in an over-crowded, busy neighborhood. There are no alarms running, no crying babies, no shouting, no neighbors being heard between the walls, just silence, just an opportunity to think, to wonder, to dream, and to rest.
When was the last time you took 30 minutes to do just that? When was the last time you shut everything off, sat still in silence, just you?
Can you do that now? From experience, it brings peace, makes the worries of the world seem a whole lot more manageable, and brings perspective. Can you take 30 minutes to stop racing?
Will you give a student the opportunity to dream, wonder, and rest by donating to Tilt? Tilt offers something countercultural to the culture of the neighborhood. Will you equip these students to grow into the leaders they were meant to be to transform their communities?