My Last Day of Silence

I sit here in silence.

Early morning and I am alone in my home. My wife left for work and the kids are away traveling together. The cats found the morning sunshine and begin their serious work of napping.  My home is quiet, still, and I sit alone. I realize this is my last day of silence before I rejoin the world on Monday with my new job.

Funny how inspiration works and the timing of life’s little lessons. As I sit here in my quiet, I decide to go to a favorite website for some enlightened reading. The site is OnBeing, and it is both a favorite website and a podcast I treasure run by Krista Tippett.  On the website I see what I need at this moment, an article titled, “OnBeing – Silence and the Space to Be Amazed.”

I encourage you to read this terrific article written by Annie Rosenbauer. It gets to the heart of why silence is so vital to humanity. Yet we do not prioritize silence and seek out quiet places. We forget to see silence as a place and its importance to listening.

“Our silence creates space to listen. Our listening creates space to take notice. Our noticing creates space for amazement. It is our amazement that gives us the energy to create change, whether that be in ourselves, in other people, or in the world.” 

The article links to one of my favorite OnBeing podcasts titled, “The Last Quiet Places: Silence and the Presence of Everything“ focused on the work of Gordon Hempton, an Acoustic Ecologist. Gordon travels the world recording natural sounds before they are lost by humanity’s reach. As time allows, do listen to this podcast.

“Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything.” – Gordon Hempton

I return to silence after reading the article and I understand my need to write as a means to extend the silence and listen. I will hold on to this quiet place as long as I can today, knowing I will walk directly into a new place on Monday, full of new sounds and experiences. I am thrilled to start this journey.  Yet I will remember today’s lesson to seek out silence and quiet places. It is the space of renewal and creation.

I realize that today is not my last day of silence and for that I am forever grateful.

-WeMoveTogether