So many different kinds of silence. Comfortable. Awkward. Long. Easy. I've felt many nuances of silence. Both as the one offering it and receiving it. Silence can be unnerving. Endless. Nonexistent. And yet there really is no lack of sound in silence.
I loved that song from Simon and Garfunkle. "Hello darkness my old friend...I've come to talk with you again...and the vision that was planted in my brain...still remains...within the sound of silence." How many hours have I sat on my deck looking over the pond? If silence is a lack of human voice, man made machinery, then I've logged a mite few hours of silence. But what gets me up out of my cozy chair by the fire this morning but the first song of the red winged blackbird returned. Yes! A voice calling in the wilderness. A voice of a friend from summer. The slightly raucous song calling me out of hibernation. Offering hope of warmth soon. Telling the news of earth, spring coming soon! After a winter with uncharacteristic amounts of snow on the ground this is good news. Fragrance rises from the thawing ground welcoming red wing blackbird back again.
The silence I live within, a silence found along a rather uninhabited dirt road, has been broken with the visit of my children. News from the outside world. Enthusiasms in full flow. The deepest, darkest days lived in solitude are ended for another year. That particular silence of wilderness winter has passed. Their youthful energy a rare gift and a pleasure. Their love of the life lived in and around silence pleases me. As does their ability to navigate urban life. Balance. Important in silence.
Living in silent solitude offers the voice within an audience. Will I listen? What do I hear? Can I let the silence be or do I rush to fill it? Can I decide to tune out long ago dialogues? Can I create new material? New songs to sing? Meet head on and acknowledge the songs I would rather pretend do not exist? And how about learning that there are some things I have no answers for? Plenty of stuff to MSU (make stuff up) around as well. And then there are times when no voice at all speaks. When I am simply part of all that is. Not a separate I. All of this arises in silence when I am living solo.
Is the silence that comes between two people different?
I loved that song from Simon and Garfunkle. "Hello darkness my old friend...I've come to talk with you again...and the vision that was planted in my brain...still remains...within the sound of silence." How many hours have I sat on my deck looking over the pond? If silence is a lack of human voice, man made machinery, then I've logged a mite few hours of silence. But what gets me up out of my cozy chair by the fire this morning but the first song of the red winged blackbird returned. Yes! A voice calling in the wilderness. A voice of a friend from summer. The slightly raucous song calling me out of hibernation. Offering hope of warmth soon. Telling the news of earth, spring coming soon! After a winter with uncharacteristic amounts of snow on the ground this is good news. Fragrance rises from the thawing ground welcoming red wing blackbird back again.
The silence I live within, a silence found along a rather uninhabited dirt road, has been broken with the visit of my children. News from the outside world. Enthusiasms in full flow. The deepest, darkest days lived in solitude are ended for another year. That particular silence of wilderness winter has passed. Their youthful energy a rare gift and a pleasure. Their love of the life lived in and around silence pleases me. As does their ability to navigate urban life. Balance. Important in silence.
Living in silent solitude offers the voice within an audience. Will I listen? What do I hear? Can I let the silence be or do I rush to fill it? Can I decide to tune out long ago dialogues? Can I create new material? New songs to sing? Meet head on and acknowledge the songs I would rather pretend do not exist? And how about learning that there are some things I have no answers for? Plenty of stuff to MSU (make stuff up) around as well. And then there are times when no voice at all speaks. When I am simply part of all that is. Not a separate I. All of this arises in silence when I am living solo.
Is the silence that comes between two people different?
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