Silence is a sound

When was the last time you heard silence?

As I sit typing this in the quiet of my home I hear someone mowing the grass in the rain. One of my two dogs letting out a single bark every five minutes or so. A bird is whistling in the holly bush next to my office window, cars are passing down the street and my two fingers are tapping a keyboard. If silence is a sound why don’t we get to enjoy it more often? Better still, why are there those of us who dread the sound of silence?

I had a college roommate (for only one semester, I figured out real quick the guy was Nucking Futs) who turned his television on the minute he walked into our dorm room. Unfortunately he couldn’t even sleep with it off and I couldn’t sleep with it on. I finally asked him one groggy morning why and his answer was very simple, it made him feel better, he liked the noise, he needed the noise.

We may all have our own definition of what silence equates too. Only hearing cricket’s chirp in the background may be your idea of silence. I will grant you this, it is the closest thing to silence I have heard in a while. Even when I am swimming and I dunk myself underwater for a moment there is still the noise of arms and feet splashing in the pool.

Is there a place that exist on this planet where we could find complete silence? Think about it, nothing, no wind blowing, no water rushing, no birds singing, no babies crying, no people breathing, just the sound of silence. I simply cannot imagine what that sounds like. I am not entirely sure I want too.

“Silence is also conversation.” –  Ramana Maharshi

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