Silence

I invite you to be silent, to be still, to listen to the quiet air around you. The unnerving nothingness and racing thoughts at first scamper through your brain, but eventually the quiet invitation is relaxing. Deeper you listen to the stillness and realize it’s not really all that still. 

I have a ritual on Sunday’s to listen to silence on my way to service on the mornings I attend in person. Although what used to be a 30 min ritual is now a 5 min ritual, I still enjoy that “silence.” 

I used to hate silence; it’s uncomfortable presence would make me tense and nervous. The comfort of noise kept the remarks in my head at bay; the to-do list would be cut off by the distraction of the music that was playing, and the world felt a little less lonely. 

But then the noise kept getting louder. The distractions kept me from important tasks that had deadlines and jeopardized my livelihood. My mind was a jumbled mess of things I had to do, needed to do and wanted to do. Family and friends were placed on hold as I gathered my senses in the fast pace of the nails on chalkboard screeches around me. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t do, I wasn’t me…. And I became silent. I let the world around me chatter and clatter on, and I, a living ghost walking the world. 

And then I was invited to be silent. I walked in the center of the grove and listened for sound and nothing came. I was sweating and tense. My brain was chating and yelling, babbling and crashing, getting rid of all the sound that needed to be said. 

Then there it was, 

the silence, the absences of noise, 

the wind gently wooshing through the trees,

the rustle and skurry of critters in the leaves. 

There it was,

the silence, the stillness of the mind, 

the thumping of the heart, 

      Da,

 Da         Da

          dump

dump. 

       dump.         

There it was, 

 the silence, the tranquil

peace

 of nothing 

Then there was me. 

So, I invite you to be silent, if not for a minute. Just turn off the noise around you. Close your eyes where you are, and sit in the stillness around you till you can hear the da-dump of your world.

~Candice Carver