daisies

The only thing i can hear right now is the ticking of the clock and tapping of the computer keys. It’s nice, in fact it’s more than nice. I like the quiet but i do know that some people prefer noise whilst they are working, such as music being played in the background. We are all different and we all see quietness differently.

As I now spend a lot of time in the house on my own i have learnt to embrace the quietness, but i didn’t always like it. In fact i would do just about anything to push it the corners of my life.  At home the television would often be on, but i wouldn’t be watching it, just background noise. Even on the days i managed to turn it off there would be music playing and even when i was out and about i would have an iPod playing music directly into my brain. With all this noise we have someone forgotten how to listen.

In all this noise we can hear nothing. We cannot hear a bird sing or the leaves rustle or the wind blowing, but it is important that we take time to hear nothing. There are some mornings when i awake that there is nothing, no sound not even a ticking of a clock. In my enclosed room there are no noises, unless a car travels up or down the street outside. It is good to sit in the quietness.

There is a way to find this quietness in a busy place. I often go to the City Park and listen to the bubbling of the fountains. It is a busy place, right in the city hall square and on the days that the weather is good enough to go and sit for a few minutes many others have the same idea too. There are often other people all around me, going about their business but yet i can tune them out and just be in that moment, in the stillness and in that quiet place. I  have already spoken of the fact that i enjoy going to a local cafe and having breakfast and taking along a book too. It is good to sit in the nothingness, in the quiet has we are so used to noise to the point that we are addicted to it.

However whilst we have all this noise going on around us we cannot hear our soul. We cannot hear God. We cannot know what he wants for us or what our very souls want for ourselves either. If we truly want to know what our heart’s desires are we must learn to enjoy the quiet, and feel free in the nothing to just dream.

Try sitting in the quiet, no music no sound unless it is natural sound. Turn off the phones, the television and the computers. Enjoy a few moments of quiet every day.