There was an amazing thunderstorm here a few days ago. The lightning was almost continuous, the rain was torrential, and the power was off for almost an hour (at least it was at my house).
Thunderstorms like that don't scare me. In fact this one, with its lengthy late evening power disruption, gave me ample time to reflect. And in my relaxed, reflective state I came to a startling revelation: nowadays, there is rarely an opportunity to enjoy true silence.
Think about it. When was the last time you experienced true silence? I'm not talking about the silence that comes when you've stepped outside the office for a quick breath of fresh air or turned your computer and cell phone off for the day after the kids are in bed. True silence does not exist in those scenarios: the traffic still flows by and the fridge is still buzzing. I'm talking about silence like people used to know it: no power lines, no traffic, no endless EMF generation. It's the kind of silence that can only come from nature; from immersing yourself deep in a forest or, in my case, enjoying a late night power outage. And it was refreshing.
We need silence. Noise is stress and silence is the cure. So if I have learned only one thing from this experience, it is this: we need to make room for silence in our lives.
An added benefit is that, in order to create silence, we need to do one of two things. One, we have to turn off all of our gadgets (at least for a little while) or two, we need to get out into nature. We can do both, of course, and save a bit of energy while we're at it. Think of it: if all of us dedicated just one afternoon a week to creating and enjoying silence, we would be calmer, more balanced, and working to save the planet in the process. It's a win-win, really.
I would like to dedicate this post to energy-saving silence. Try it, you'll like it.
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