Silent Symphony

Friday’s Feature

Silence is golden. So goes that old adage. I have often wondered what this phrase really means. I remember as a young adult hearing an older colleague remark that sometimes on her drive home, she would turn off the radio and just drive in the quiet space of her mind. As a twenty-something, I thought the idea was ridiculous. Driving without music and living without sound seemed so foreign, an alien concept that was of little interest to me. Even now, it’s rare that I don’t put on Spotify for my commute, or don’t have something playing in the background when I’m in my space.

That said, I’m learning to appreciate silence for what it offers. I spend so much of my day being bombarded by different sounds – requests and wishes from those around me, shitty pop music in Dental World, the songs I listen to at the gym … all music that sets the tone for my life. And it all has purpose, to be sure.

So when I decide to seek out silence, it becomes decadent, a luxury that I don’t often afford myself. And it is divine. Today I’ve spent most of my day in silence – I’ve refrained from music except at the gym and while I was writing, and have been largely quiet on all things socially related. The result has offered me a sort of golden mind space that has allowed my thoughts to drift and move fluidly between waking dreams and hibernating wishes. I don’t know that I could give up music or sound all together for a long stretch at a time, but every now and again, it’s nice to just turn it all off and really listen. I’ve found that today I’ve heard so many things I might ordinarily take for granted. Cicadas, mainly, but also the sound of rain drops on leaves set to fall, a runner’s pounding footsteps, air conditioners humming to life, helicopters flying overhead, the jangle of the collar of the dog who lives upstairs. These are all sounds that generally blend into the background when I’m too busy to pay attention to them. This afternoon, because they’ve been the only symphony I’ve heard, I’ve derived a decided sort of peace in hearing them. I hope that this exercise helps me to start to listen more actively. Who knows what I songs I might learn along the way.