How sweet the sound

                                                      

of silence that is...




We are far from being a quiet household.  

Instead we are a collection of extroverts and "spiritedness", who believe we each have a right to be heard and will passionately compete for airspace and centre stage to tell our story.

 

Excitement, interruptions, tension and turmoil frequently lift our noise level to record breaking highs.  Engulfed in the noise pollution that exists within the confines of my 4 walls, the hope of a moment of hush is something I often long for. 

For it is a rare occasion that the hustle and bustle of life comes to a standstill and I am left alone in the quietness of my thinking for just a moment, to savour the sweet sound of silence. 

It is of course normally a fleeting moment, before life manages to burst in and interrupt it. 

Recently a friend of mine shared that when she was in hospital for a few days she strongly desired to hear the sound of life, and as a mother of 5 you can imagine there is a lot of living going on there! 

This concept seemed foreign to me, and I had to admit that when I am drowning and thrashing about in the sea of racket, I would sooner choose to hear the sound of silence.

With this honest revelation I decided to dig a little deeper to uncover the mystery which lay beneath my loathing of all things noisy.

The truth was surprisingly, all about me!

My belief, that if life is too noisy, then life feels and is out of control. And if life is out of control, then it is a reflection of me failing to keep order and control. 

In other words accepting that I am imperfect (a reoccuring theme one thinks). So I challenged myself, who said that a quiet controlled environment is a true reflection of a family experiencing the essence of life?  

Maybe the sounds of creativity and imagination, assertiveness and confidence, relationship and conflict resolution, and passion and joy, are an expression of freedom and warrant a little air space from time to time? 

So as I soldier on in this war on noise, my hope is that when commotion comes, I can combat my beliefs about noise, and attempt to see the living that is unfolding right before my eyes. 

And instead of desiring the sound of silence, I too, can enjoy the sound of life.

Even if I do have to wear my ear plugs to take the edge off!

How is the noise level in your household?  What do you do to cope?

image by freepik