Silence is rich. It is dark and viscous and it flows on waves of nothingness. Silence begs to be filled and filled it must be. It is lonely and demanding and chill to the touch but it tastes smooth like the breeze. Silence is an opulent black pearl and one of the rarest gems on Earth.
There is a simple profoundness that can be found in the absence of sound. The emptiness that silence provides often gives rise to thought–the deep kind. The sort that give birth to leaps of logic and flights of the imagination. Silence is the canvas on which beautiful art can be created. It sits and waits patiently.
Silence isn’t in a hurry. It doesn’t need to explain itself or impress anyone or anything. It just is. It is the essence of cool.
I love silence. I crave it even. It is sorely needed in this noisy world that we have created. Life passes far too quickly for proper reflection but the quiet gives our minds time to relax and reflect.
Of course there is no true silence, even in nature far away from the influence of man, there is sound. And it is these sounds in the silence that I take time out to explore.
Being a city dweller, the sounds I pick up are a mix of city hum and the song of nature. I have learned to appreciate the sounds I hear for what they are. Which I would have to say mostly traffic and birds…well let’s just say I try to focus on the birds and not the traffic so much.
I will often go into the backyard, especially on days when I can find the smallest sliver of sunshine. I will sit in the golden light and close my eyes and listen. Listen to each and every individual sound I can possibly hear.
This is not only relaxing, it is mind expanding. It is as if I am floating…
Each day is different. Today it is the caws of crows. They fly from treetop to treetop calling to each other. I can hear one and then another and soon a chorus rings out. The sound comes from high in the sky in all directions. The atmosphere is alive and quick and I can feel their energy in my spirit and the warmth of the still-warm late October sun on my happy face.
Someday I will escape the city if only for a day and I will go to a random field or an empty beach or a hilltop among a grove of trees and listen and take it all in, keeping it with me always.
For today though, the caws of crows do quite nicely.
♥
Strawberryindigo.
“I’ve begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own.”
― Chaim Potok
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Life Is Color 
Beautifully written Nancy,you’ve a great talent 😉
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Thank you Tiger. You are a kind soul.
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I think it takes courage to allow silence, to not fill every moment of our existence with manufactured sound, to give ourselves the quiet and space to hear what is germinating inside us, and to begin to know who we are.
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I live on the outskirts of the city, and am blessed to enjoy the silence of nature often.
You have described it well, here. It does nourish the soul.
Sometimes I turn off the radio in the car and enjoy the silence in there, too.
It truly is a rare commodity.
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Hello Denise, it is always good to meet another appreciator of nature. I live smack daub in the middle of the city. It is a nice city but a city nonetheless. I yearn to move out to the outskirts such as you. Yes silence is a rare commodity for sure.
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I think silence is spiritual but a little bit of noise is not bad either otherwise it will be too boring. Just a matter of balancing the equation.
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Everything in moderation…How are you Udoji?
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I’m good and you?
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That’s great to hear you are good. I am wonderful, thanks for asking Udoji. 🙂
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I find the sound of crows very peaceful. We have a constant murder of them here at our home so many in fact that people have named our home Crows Landing. Thank you
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Hello Michelle: Love that name; Crows Landing.
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Reblogged this on Lavender Reflections and commented:
Silence. A rare commodity these days…
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Inspiring post in fact.
If there is no stillness,
there is no silence.
If there is no silence,
there is no insight.
If there is no insight,
there is no clarity
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Hello Ivsrao, So true and so well put. Thanks.
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Nature– definitely over the city. But we’ll take nature within the city, while we can. Have a wonderful day.
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Hello Loujenhaxmyor, Yes, I find all the nature in the city as I can. I really admire the spunk of a tiny flower growing out of a crack in the sidewalk. Thanks for stopping by.
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I love the serenity of this post and the imagery of the crow. Perfect for such a season and introspection. 🙂
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Long hikes in the woods, with nothing around for miles and miles gives one the sense of being alone but then they hear the forest whisper from the trees, mountains dirt and moss and begin to feel humbled by the crowd of what is around them.
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You are describing ecstasy my friend, thanks.
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I love quiet too. We often have power failures here and I find it so relaxing to have quiet around the house.
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Power failures can be enjoyable with an attitude such as yours Michelle, thanks for stopping by–always nice to see you. 🙂
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My previous house was at the end of a rather longish road with a tree farm surrounding nearly three sides of our place. It was heavenly during some of the truly silent days (other than the complaints from the squirrels or birds)…. except for the times when the lawnmowers were disturbing everything and everyone! Now, I do get a whole lot more traffic noise.
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Oh Gunta, I hate the lawnmowers, it seems one starts and then it get a bunch of others going…and the leaf blowers….don’t get me started on those…
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I think leaf blowers are an invention of the devil. Such an easy thing to do to rake up some leaves and yet it seems we have to endure those gas guzzling, smelly, noisy machines. Utter madness.
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As you well know I’m sure Gunta, raking is such good exercise. The time is almost upon us. I can hear my neighbor now…haha. 😉
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You’ve found the perfect words to describe silence. And I too have a family of crows cawing away every morning. I do love that sound, as it’s come to mean all’s well with the world! Really enjoyed this post! 😀
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Hey Cathy, some people don’t like crows but I like them. They are very intelligent, to be able to coexist with us humans they must have something going for them. Thanks for the kind words my friend. 😀
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Very well written – silence really can be inspiring… 🙂
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Yes it can Drake and so are nice duck friends. 🙂
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Choosing between traffic noise and birds is no brainer … there are days especially in summer when I would kill for silence – noise from nature. Lovely writing Nancy!
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Hey Paula, me too my friend. Thanks for the kind words.
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What a sunset
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Yes it is, thanks Katherine. 🙂
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Such an inspiring post! Thank you, Sbi 🙂
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Thank you Amy, It is always a pleasure! 🙂
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Hello!
Thank you so much for linking back to my blog!
Greatly appreciated.
Best,
Celma
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Hello Celma: You are welcome and thanks for putting out such great stuff to link to. 🙂
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did you know the text box displays white texton a white background?
Interesting.
~ Eric
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I recently went to the mountains and it was very quiet exceptfor a breeze for a good while. I loved it
~ Eric
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Sounds great Eric, I love the mountains–very nice.
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I have very bad tinnitus . . . I prefer music, or other broad spectrum “noise”, otherwise I “hear my brain” way too much.
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That’s too bad Disperser about that, music is good though.
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. . . part of the reason I listen to music when doing anything creative; not so much to inspire, but to provide background noise.
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Reblogged this on Teacher as Transformer and commented:
This is central to a couple papers I am working on while I take my break from actively blogging this week. Silence is the space where things happen for us.
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Thanks Ivon for the reblog, I am truly honored.
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You are welcome. It elicited several great comments. Clearly, it touched people.
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