The Sound of Country Silence

Do you really know the sound of silence? I mean have you sat quiet and undisturbed so that you wonder what you hear and it’s your heart? It is hard to describe this to someone. It’s harder to image this. It’s practically impossible to experience it. If you live in a city then truly you can’t experience this. There is always noise. Just like oxygen bars were all the rage a few years back there should be quiet bars. A room that you can go to and just sit. Void of noise. We have such a vast amount of noise in our lives it’s hard to understand this.  Right now I’m in my home office in the country. Nearest airport is 45 miles away. A train track is 30 miles away. Nearest county road is half a mile away and very rarely used at night. Unless it’s bingo night, then it’s busy for an hour and quiet again. So in my office it still has noise. Well, besides the clicking of the keyboard. I have a fluorescent light that hums at an annoying pitch. Maybe that is why I get crazy in Walmart. The underlying hum and weird lighting must have something to do with that.  I get the fan on my laptop once in a while. So the office is noisy as well. The hum from the fridge. Sound of the water purifier kicking in. Sometimes the fan on the fire place and/or the furnace in winter. My husbands radio in the summer kitchen. Even in this country home I get noise feedback.

People are always commenting about how quiet it is here. Well, sometimes. Spring is not one of them. Between the diesel engine on the farmers tractors working the fields and the cows, it can get noisy. The beginning of spring projects, hammers and saws. The chain saw cutting wood for next year. The biggest spring noise? Mating blue jays. You just can’t imagine the racket they can make. Every single one of them needs to squawk and everyone is the best bird. One spring I had 34 in my yard doing the mating song and dance routine. Unreal, but very real.

Photo compliments of animal-pics.com. A great site for wallpapers.

Silence is good for you. It’s therapeutic. It brings your being back into balance. It resets your inner self. Many times in the summer I will go outside and listen to the quiet. No breeze, no motion, no sound of any kind. Just my deep breathing calming my soul. I will sit on the highest part of the property and just look around me. Perfect stillness. A gift from Mother Nature. Once I did this in the heat of the summer. Total peace. I looked up to a perfect blue sky, not a cloud, not a breeze. Two red tail hawks  were circling overhead. Very high. I could hear nothing. They joined in a sky fall mating ritual. Still no sound.  They were the only motion around me. It was as if Mother Nature provided them with a special moment just for them.  And then to gently break the peace a bee landed beside me on a daisy just to give me a reminder it’s time to get back to business. A gentle breeze through the tall grasses. Ever so subtle and quiet.

A good time for the silence is to be outside looking at the stars. Pick a new moon. Get into the country.  Still kind of hard with night air traffic. You have not seen our universe until you are in the country night sky. Or try early morning before the rest of the family gets up or late at night when they have gone to sleep. I would mark a day on my calendar to experience this peace.  Another of my favourite quiet times is just before sunrise. To watch the earth turn from dark to light. To watch a performance from Mother Natures little creatures. My favourite spot is on a pond. The silent beginning of a day. To meditate upon the activity unfolding quietly is something to be amazed at. There is no great noise. Every creature seems to know when it is time for them to do a performance for Mother Nature. From the dragonfly to the family of ducks. It is all well rehearsed and well timed. It’s all about the gentle motion not about the noise.

The sound of country silence is calm and welcoming. It is a noise like no other. It can be a noise or pure silence but either way it fits into our sole for nurturing our being.