Silence.
It is such a rare luxury, particularly with a four year old in tow.
A four year old whom I beg at least once a day for two minutes of silence.
Sometimes I need to be in a place where all noise is gone, the noise of everyday life. A place where there is no cell phone reception, no electricity, no man-made noise. I want to be swallowed up in silence.
I long for quiet moments of pure nothingness.
Have you ever been still for a minute, closed your eyes and listened?
It’s a beautiful and peaceful experience.
I’m not one to meditate, but if I try really hard, I can almost reach an inner stillness and find a way to let the rhythm calm me.
Bearing witness to my own breath entering and leaving my body.
My own beating heart.
The drone hum of the refrigerator.
Rustling of leaves outside my window.
Wind whistling.
The familiar jingle of the tags on my dog’s collar.
Steady turning of pages.
Soft tapping on a keyboard.
Steady oscillating fan.
Silence can be both positive and negative, deafening or sweet reprieve.
It’s that five (or two) necessary minutes I need to calm my thoughts, take a deep cleansing breath and move on to the next task.
What does your silence sound like?
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My silence sounds like the click of a bedroom door and no little feet running to stand outside of it, no tiny hands asking to come in. My silence sounds like cars whizzing by outside, like birds that have full conversations with one another in a language I don’t understand but whose songs are so very sweet and comforting. It is the ability to hear myself, my thoughts, the crunch of leaves under a squirrel’s foot, a branch tapping the window as he jumps from one part of the tree to another. My silence sounds like nature.
Yes!! I love it. So many beautiful and peaceful sounds are from nature. Natural, free and inviting.
Silence sounds like no noise coming in to disturb my thoughts. The noise could be a calendar that screams for me to fill it or abide by its strict schedule, or a child who is at a friend’s house and needs to be picked up. I have a hard time finding silence. Quiet is easy to come by here (EVERYBODY GO OUTSIDE!!!) but silence eludes me.
Trust me, I know how difficult it is to get to a quiet place, even for just a few minutes because we all have so many different things screaming at us, but when and if we do, it’s absolutely glorious!
Thanks for bringing me to that place. I get there far too rarely.
Moving from the city to the suburbs has recently changed my definition of silence. It now sounds like birds chirping and a distinct lack of traffic and construction. I can now distinguish each vehicle that revs up or that drives down our street because it is not constant. Silence now is so tangible and different than what I have been used to.
I don’t get to go there very often either but when I do, I devour it!!
I love that it is so quite at my office. I can sit and enjoy the silence before I go home. It is awesome.
You are lucky to have that. Relish it!
I will admit to loving going into work in these days before school starts. No kids anywhere near while I close my classroom door, put on some quiet REM or classical music, and just be alone with my computer, books, lesson plans, and thoughts. Yesterday I spent an hour rearranging furniture and fixing bulletin boards. It was glorious.
Peace and quiet and time alone with ourselves is very magical. And so so SO necessary!
I’m always surrounded by noise, which I usually love, but when I really need silence, it tends to be in the car. I turn off the radio and just think, and it’s exactly what I need.
The car is an excellent place to find stillness. It doesn’t take long to feel whole again.
I love the sound of silence, but I often have to actively go find it, and create it. When I find it, I always remind myself that I should create it more often.
Oh, I do too and that makes me kind of sad. It takes real effort to unplug and be still with myself.
YES. Last week, with the kids gone, the silence was profound. It was positive in the beginning, until it got to be too much and I needed the noise again.
Silence can be profound and noise can be delightful. Glad you got to experience both sides.
I got all teary reading this. I haven’t had silence in so long. I miss it terribly, and I never thought I’d say that.
It makes me sad that this made you cry. ): On the other hand, I know what you mean… when you haven’t had something so simple in a long time, it makes you pause. I hope you get some peace and quiet soon. xoxo
Silence is nap time and after the kids go to bed, no surprises there.
It’s when I do my best writing. Which is why I need silence and crave it.
Camping with the kids is mostly devoid of silence and resting…but I sometimes find that moment. This time it was late at night after everyone was asleep and the campfire had gone out. I walked to the lake and laid down on the hard rocks. I felt the rocks poke my back, looked up at the incredible amount of stars and listened to the soft lap of the water. It was one of my favorite moments. Ahhh. Peace.
Honestly? I’m not sure what silence sounds like…mostly because, when it does happen, I fall asleep on a couch somewhere.
I think the silence of it is why I have a love/hate relationship with yoga. Perhaps that’s why I enjoy Bikram because it is quiet, it’s also such an intense workout that I like that quietness. I am rarely in pure silence ever in my life. Even when I am just in my bedroom alone, I always have my iPod playing on my stereo in the background or something playing on my laptop. I also feel like it’s very rare for me nowadays to ever be completely alone. Haha
I typically find my silence during the short drive to and from my workout classes in the mornings. I cherish it.