The sounds of silence

Turn off the radio, the TV, the i-thingy's, the cd-player, and any other sound making gadget, what do you hear? Stop texting, e-mailing, reading or writing, what do you hear? There is so much noise/sounds around us all the time that silence(absence of noise/sounds) can seem overwhelming, too intimate, and very intrusive, so for just a moment, let's imagine this planet without electricity, when candles lit our darkness and horsepower, was horse power. Maybe we hear an old grand-pa clock ticking, birds crowing and chirping, sheep bleeting, an open fire crackling, the rustling of leaves in a breeze or the low pitched hum of a rolling ocean. Instead of us making the sounds, nature is speaking.

There is a concept called "mindfullness" and when I first came across it, I found it hard to grasp. I googled it, looked it up in dictionaries, and still found it hard to fully understand until one day, when I felt compelled to turn off all sound-making things and just be still.

I layed down on the couch and closed my eyes. At first a million thoughts flooded my mind and it was  loud!,but I was determind to forge on. I decided to concentrate, to focus on just one single sound and not allow my mind to keep chattering, so I choose the sound of a cricket. It was probably eating my nice green foliage while chirping, but I pushed those thoughts aside and forced the mind to stay with just the chirping. Slowly I could feel my body relaxing, I noticed it, but didn't dwell on the feelings, I just kept focusing on the sound of the cricket. I don't know for how long I did this, because the experience was like I had put my mind in neutral. The "motor" so to speak was still running, but I wasen't going anywhere. When I felt ready, I allowed for more sounds to enter into my consciousness, one at the time, until I was fully aware of most of them. This was a most peculiar and amazing experience, I felt as if I had had a shower of the mind. I don't know if this qualifies as "mindfullness" but for me, it does.

I try to remind myself that nature is always speaking, it's just me that forgets to listen.