THE SOUNDS IN SILENCE

It’s getting to be more and more difficult these days to even hear oneself speak. There is noise everywhere and if we do not hear noise, we probably think we are dead. The TV is on, someone else is on a cell phone, another one is ringing, someone else is texting, and a video game is being played. And even when we can crawl up into a favorite corner and be all by ourselves, it is still difficult to find silence.

We might even prefer it that way. Sitting in silence is not the same as going into our “nothing” box as we men are wont to do on a very regular basis, almost always at the wrong time, as when our spouse is talking to us and we have not heard a word she has said nor have we heard anything else. We are dead to the world and even dead to ourselves whenever we are in that box.

There is silence in which we hear nothing and there is silence is which we hear sounds. That is the silence that is difficult to come by and often one that is also avoided. It can be somewhat frightening to listen to those sounds that come from within, those sounds that speak to us about us, about who we are and what we are about. Those sounds can often be unpleasant and disconcerting, which is one of the reasons why we do whatever we can to avoid listening to them.

Yet we should. For it is only in the recesses of our hearts and minds, when we are still to the world and the world is still to us, that we can hear ourselves. It is only in that silence that we are able to hear our conscience talking to us, our lives and the way we live them speaking to us. It is all too easy for the sounds on the outside to drown out the sounds we can only hear on the inside.

We don’t have to go off on some kind of retreat or seek solace in a quiet room to hear those sounds, but it would certainly help. Yes, we can come up with all kinds of excuses why we can’t do it, why we do not have time to do it, why there are so many more things to do at the moment. And all those excuses would be valid. Life is difficult and the demands placed upon us simply trying to get through this life with some semblance of sanity are immense. No one questions that truth.

But the greater truth is that unless we stop at times to listen to what is going on inside us, to how we are and what we are about, to what we should be about, we will only make matters worse and our lives more complicated. We know that. We truly do. There is not one of us who does not long for some silent time, quiet time, time to think and reflect. We are spiritual beings, are we not? But getting in touch with that spiritual part of us, listening to it, can only take place in silence.

Lent, which is approaching, is as good a time as any and better than most to make and take that time to find a silent spot, that quiet and comfortable place wherever it may be, to listen to the sounds we hear in the silence of our hearts and heads. What we will discover if we make and take that time is that we will want to go back there more and more on a regular basis. The first step into that silence, however, is the most difficult one to take.