Silence

"Go placidly amidst the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence".
~Desiderata

Our anxious world becomes quite noisy at times. Noise from everywhere, and all the time. Noises that resound with the boisterous demands of a culture that celebrates loudness as if it were an essential element of living.

Beside the many voices and vices in our heads and hearts that seek to live out their many intentions through our actions, there are yet the multitude of actors in the real environment of our daily lives seeking to occupy us with the pointed projections of their volatile interior states.

The blaring microphones and flashing lights that serve the existential volatility of those who would fill us with their froth are a source of disquiet that is potentially maddening. Potentially... because we are not bound to succumb to the cacophonous chorus coming forth from those who would impose a destructive imbalance on our world by way of their over-indulgent egos.

We can silence the noises in our own heads, and we can neutralize the boisterousness in the world around us. A prayer. A cleansing breath. A poem. A moment of love-embracing reflection. The realization of fear-denying clarity. A walk in the  woods. A cleansing scream. Embracing the naked truth about our personal aspirations, the fears we harbor, and our disheartening frustrations. Maybe something I haven't said that works for you...

First we must come to terms with the noises in ourselves. Our help? Truth spoken with a daring lack of abrasiveness... Not shouted, just admitted... finally. That truth will vary from one person to the next. Obviously. Each of us must admit it... and speak it... and begin the process of quelling the disquiet that is the source of our disequilibrium.

The noises that pollute our lives are an orchestra of our own persistent dysfunctions on a personal level, and they are symptomatic of a world suffering from an overflow of vanities piled on top of vanities, each seeking supremacy over the other. We eventually become worn out by the superficial nonsense all around us. On radio and television. In print media and movies. In contrived "reality shows". And from one "talking head" to the other.

It is up to each one of us to find the wherewithal to navigate and survive the stream of unconsciousness threatening to sweep us all into a state of obliviousness. We must seek and find that place of balance in our lives that needs no drumbeat. Toward that end, humility helps. We must empty ourselves of our own froth. That froth is the bubbling nonsense in and around us that has no future, because there is no substance therein.

 Let us heed what is at once an invitation and an instruction... "Go placidly amidst the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence".  "Silence" is a state of being. Silence is a place in which we can become the persons we long to be. It is a refuge, and way of journeying; a place in which to retreat, and a way of retreating. Silence is an ocean at its deepest depth. Silence is the mountain at its highest peak. Silence is a life lived above and beyond the undulations of our ingrained insecurities. It is that notion beyond words that comes to embrace us in the stillness of a moment of truth. Silence comes to us as a place of clarity. 

... . The popping bubbles you hear is a quality of the dissipating froth all around you. Those clarifying notions echoing between our ears are indicators of the changing pressure in the atmosphere of our lives. And finally... the sound of silence. It is as beautiful and as uplifting as a treasure found. Silence reveals itself as a thing of tremendous value and  great splendor. Gather it to yourself... Embrace it, and live into its wonderful graces. Take the serenity it brings to you, with you ...everywhere you go.