The Eloquence of Silence

There are many different types of silence. 

I never thought much about this

until I came across a passage on the subject

in this neat little book I am reading called "Small Graces" by Kent Nerburn.

In my own experience, I can think of several different types.  There is the eerie silence under water, following a dive into a pool after the initial splash and commotion have subsided as you glide back to the surface. 

 There is the collective hush of a crowd as thousands of spectators hold their breath and time freezes for a split second 

prior to  Match Point at Wimbledon.

There was the cathedral of silence and beauty where I pretended to hunt many years ago framed by acres of columns of stately pines that virtually blocked the sky while offering temporary sanctuary from the cares of the world.

There is the dreaded "Silent Treatment", that tense, emotionally charged silence between a man and a woman who have run into

an impasse in their relationship;

a silence so thick it can be cut with a knife.

There is my own particular version of silence that is marked by the ringing in my ears

as my penance for listening to too much

loud music during my younger days.

There was the silence in the left ear endured by my Father as the price he paid while serving his country as a gunner's mate during WWII.

And there is the most cruel silence

I have ever known,

that of returning to an empty house

that used to be filled the laughter and joy

of my small daughter,

 who would never live under the same roof with me again after her seventh birthday.

In "Small Graces", Kent Nerburn says,

"We need to pay attention to the many silences in our lives. An empty room is alive with a different silence than a room where someone is hiding. The silence of a happy house echoes

less darkly than the silence of a house of brooding anger".

"The silence of a winter morning is sharper than the silence of a summer dawn. The silence of a mountain pass is larger than the silence of a forest glen. These are not fantasies, they are subtle discriminations of the senses.

Though all are the absence of sound,

each has a character of its own".

"No meditation better clears the mind than to listen to the shape of the silence that surrounds us. It focuses us on the thin line between what is there and what is not there.

It opens our heart to the unseen

and reminds us that the world is larger

than the events that fill our days".