“You will never hear the silence without the noise.”
In looking for lessons on gratitude for my students, I came across this quote from a beautiful short film, called Gift.
How powerful those words are. Profound.
Our lives, my life, is so full of noise. The noise is such a constant that it’s easy to forget it’s there, a static that fades into the background…The white noise that I hum along to, without even realizing it.
Until I do. And it knocks me on my ass.
The hum of electricity-the anxiety of the do this, do more, be that, be more culture that we live in. The anxiety of a life not lived out as planned. Memories that haunt me. The noise is deafening, debilitating.
And I just can’t take it.
And I run…not to alcohol or drugs or religion. I run to the wild places.
I’ve figured out that in nature I can quiet that noise…that internal noise. It’s the only place I feel entirely safe and accepted for who I am. It’s where I can hear the silence.
My favorite is to hike alone. My thoughts wander and I feel the letting go and detachment I struggle with in town. I pause. And think. And breathe. And I am…I just simply exist with no other purpose except that I do. And I feel free.
I was looking for lessons on gratitude. I came across the quote…
“You will never hear the silence without the noise.”
What a big ask! Instead of running away from the noise and into the silent safe space of the mountains, I’m supposed to feel gratitude for the noise?
When I think about it, the silence really does come from the absence of the static that hums through my everyday life. Without that, how would I ever be able to recognize that sweet sweet silence when it comes? I suppose the silence would be the static. It would become the norm and maybe it would also slowly drive me crazy.
So maybe what I’m looking for isn’t silence.
But balance.
I think I need to dig into that…The next time I’m sitting on a rock up in the hills.
