I am sitting alone in a silent house right now. I am not making any noise. There is no TV on, and no music playing. Scott is at work. This is my last morning of "alone time" before the weekend hits, and on Monday I go back to work after more than 2 weeks off. I am enjoying this time.
I often say that I hate the sound of silence. And it's true ... most of the time, I do. I am the person who always has to have white noise, a TV on, music playing, because silence hurts my ears. When the power goes off in the middle of the night in my house, I ... wake up. Because it's silent. And I hate it. This is why I feel that living in a rural place would be hard for me. I'd have to load up my house with even more noisemakers than I have now: more air purifiers, fans, noise to make up for the grating sound of silence around me.
But sometimes (all too rarely), like this morning, I settle into the silence, and it feels how I imagine most other people feel when they hear silence: good. Comforting. Relaxing. Needed.
Is that how it feels for you?
Choose to be quiet for ten minutes today.
I'm about to go on my daily run. I can't wait to be out there, listening to the world around me (and my breath) and not speaking. In fact ... it's nearly noon and I haven't spoken to a single person since Scott left for work this morning. I love it. I feel serene.
Wait before speaking.
As ANYONE who knows me can attest, this is one of my biggest failures in life. I constantly interrupt people. I just get really excited and passionate about the words about to come out of my mouth, you know? But it comes off as super mega rude, and one of my resolutions this year is precisely this: to wait before speaking. To actually listen to other people more. I know this sounds like childs play, probably, but it's a huge struggle for me!
Let others reveal their thoughts.
This goes along with above. (Now writing this on Saturday morning) I really tried to do this yesterday. I'm not sure how I succeeded. Fortunately, my interactions with people were at a minimum yesterday. I did think before I spoke, and I let the internet have itself last night without posting a thousand things on social media ... but the important part is this: did I listen to Scott? Did I interrupt him? Did I let him tell his stories and have his moments? I guess I'll have to ask him. I tried to listen. When he said he wanted to watch something we'd never watched before, I found Ultraviolet on Encore and we watched it. We also ended up watching two episodes of "Cocaine Wars," but that's another story ...
Here is some of my silence, from my run:
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| Mission Creek Garden |
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| Bay Front Park |
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| Agua Vista Park |
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
I'm participating in Radvent this year via the ever-awesome Princess Lasertron, and you should too!
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