Craving silence

On Sunday night, after Mat left, there was a profound silence. At first it was unsettling, but then I busied myself doing things on the internet and forgot about it. Then after a while I turned off the noisy fan on my computer to listen to some quiet chanting on Ancient Faith Radio, and for a moment I just sat and enjoyed the stillness between the sound of voices singing softly. It was so beautiful and calming and restorative! I can't describe the feeling.

Then on Monday night Mat was over to pick up the last of his stuff and we listened to music. But last night when I got home, again, silence. It was so nice. I thoroughly enjoyed it after living for 6 months with someone who liked to play MMO'S or on the Playstation all evening right outside my bedroom door (which I can't close because of the cats) when I was home and most of the night. He wore headphones at night though. When my friend Steph asked me how I was yesterday I told him "I'm savoring the silence!" Lol :P

This morning on Plime I found this article. I realized how much I've been craving silence. Or nature sounds. I had thought of buying nature sounds cd's a while back but never got around to it. So I'm gonna do that now.

I've always found working beside a radio playing all day to be annoying, but just now realized it's more than just needing to turn off the radio, I need silence. I work in a calling center and it gets noisy. When I get home after the noise of the traffic to meowing cats, a humming fridge, a dripping tap and nothing else it's so nice. Although it would be nicer to come home to birdsong. Like the guy in the article I grew up in the country too and I'm missing it more and more lately. I've been living in the city for 8 years now.

I remember going on a retreat in the country with the Christian Fellowship at John Abbott in 2003. We drove way, way out into the country to a place with some cabins and a small lake. I remember standing on the balcony of the cabin on a clear night looking over the lake and staring at the stars and just sinking into that beautiful complete silence. That was my favourite moment during the retreat. And when I take a bath I sometimes just lie with my ears under the water for a while to enjoy the silence too.

Yesterday evening I was at home on the phone with my dad and he commented how echo-y it sounded at my place. It's true, I might put up cloth wall hangings or something to make it nice and muffled.