The power of silence
Have you ever had moments when you felt you heard or said a lot more in silence? When the thoughts in your head seem louder and clearer to you? When you start noticing people and things around in greater detail and you understand them better for that quiescence? In India, one would probably have to go to a distant ashram or a hill station to experience this stillness. Where I live, noise is a novelty. And it is in these moments of silence that I discovered so many new thoughts and feelings.
In my home, turning on a switch sounds like the big bang. After my husband leaves for work, my world is usually enveloped by silence. The noise of the outside world hardly permeates inside and I have hours to myself to sit and reflect on everything. Sometimes I think of the past and the things I would like to change or relive. Sometimes it is the future and what I must do. What I have come to understand is that I need to learn to tap the real power of silence and use it well and not trifle it away in meaningless thoughts and emotions.
So may great people have so much to say on it. “Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel of dull discourses and foolish acts, a balm to every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment”- Henry David Thoreau; ” A silent mouth is sweet to hear” – Irish proverb; ” Music and silence combine strongly because music is done with silence and silence is full of music”- Marcal Marceau; ” There are time when silence has the loudest voice”- Leroy Brownlow. I love reading these quotes again and again, for I know now how true they are.
I believe I want to reach a point in my life where it is not words that compel me to understand or imagine, instead the lack of it does; Where my partner and I can converse comfortably in our silence and we are better off for it. This is a silent niche I want to build where I grow quietly into a better person and realise that I have made a mark and said a lot all by saying nothing at all.
