Silence is an interesting and underappreciated moment of our lives. Often the things we remember most are filled with silence, not because the moment was silent but because all other senses were heightened and remembering the sounds that played in those moments have faded from our memories. Silence is something my life lacks a great deal of. It is something I never thought about until today, when I was driving my car back from somewhere. I drove in silence. Not complete silence, but there were no noises from my mouth or my stereo or really anything. It is not true silence, but it is a sort of silence that allows for thought. White noise around us that we hear but not necessarily hear, background static that disappears within the folds of transfixed thoughts. As I write, I write in relative silence. My keyboard clicks and makes noises that are soothing to my ears. My cat purrs and rubs her face across mine and jingles and jangles with her collar, and yet the serenity of silence surrounds us. We sit in silence, basking in it and how it allows us to think and feel deeper emotions without interference. It gives an inkling of what it is like to live as a monk who has sworn to maintain silence, or a soldier that must stand guard at her majesty’s palace in England. Of course the silence I am currently enduring will be broken in due time, as it must be to facilitate conversation. However this promotion of the ideals of silence urges me to think about recollecting the silence in my life. It has prompted me to realize that I spend a lot of time talking, and sometimes the time I have spent talking has not been by necessity but because of boredom and failure to be an active listener. I feel I need to sit in solemn silence for longer these days, especially around those I care for and listen earnestly and silently. A wonderful idea in my opinion. I will still speak, but I will do more listening. It reminds me of an event from highschool. There was this guy a year below me in highschool, I know not his name but I remember him to be a cheery individual. I think it was his sophomore year, my junior year, that he decided to go completely silent. Seemingly for no reason, he stopped talking all together. He would nod and hang out with everyone, but he did not speak a single word. This went on for 6 months, until one day he casually asked for someone’s fries, which stunned everyone as he hadn’t spoken for so long that everyone seemed to forget his voice. He spoke nothing in class, nothing at home, nothing anywhere, for 6 months. Then he began speaking again. He described the experience as calming and peaceful, something that helped center himself as a person. It was incredible, I have always wanted to be a copycat of what he did however I have been afraid of doing such. I don’t think I could do it, simply because I have a wonderful relationship, family to talk to, a new job soon, and friends I wish to interact with. I get uncomfortable if I do not speak for large periods of time, however I think a limited amount of silence might be in order. I think that the silence in my life is too small as of now. I think I must grow to be a little bit more silent. The silence in life will be a form of meditation for me I guess. I know meditation is used to help center and rebalance oneself however I have too much energy to sit in one place for long. There already has been an uptick in the silence in my life as I have begun to read once again, and this I am favorable of. It makes me quite happy that silence accompanies vividly hallucinating while staring at the tattooed corpse of a tree. I encourage others to think about silence, and how peace and quiet might help soothe their souls. My mother always said it was best to be silent before the second cup of coffee, this of course was to give her some peace of mind for a little bit before being berated by me and now I am starting to understand. Small children bring noise to our lives, yes, but the silence part I am beginning to understand. It is nice to start our day with silence and indulging in coffee. It is wonderful even. So too many cups of coffee had in silence, to thoughts being pondered or written about without outside noise, I raise my glass too and smile.

Thank you for reading my thoughts on this silently. It is quite the peculiar topic, but I am quite the peculiar person now aren’t I? Please enjoy viewing other things I have written about!

-Ben