Sweet Silence

I've really been looking forward to this long weekend. For those of you not in Canada, we celebrate Victoria Day this weekend and have the Monday off. It's quite likely most Canadians wouldn't be able to tell you what this holiday entails (from a national perspective, anyway), but they will tell you that it's celebrated by trips to the cottage, catching up on sleep, and if we're lucky, three glorious days of patio weather.

The weekend has been quite busy for me -- until now. And this very moment is exactly what I've been looking forward to for quite some time. I'm alone with my thoughts, Adele is playing in the background, I have a cup of tea by my side, and the sun is still shinning outside. I'm quite content.

It seems as though moments like these are hard to come by now days. And I crave them with all my senses. I'd say life, for the most part, is not only chaotic -- it's noisy! From the buzzing of mobile devices, to the news on TV, to the constant whir of cars outside, to the random homeless person screaming on the corner of the street... sometimes I just wish I could put life on mute.

But then I wonder. Because I can't get enough of other sounds... waves kissing the shore, jazz music floating in from the distance, babies laughing, wind rustling through the trees... I could hear all of these things together and still smile.

The city has always been my home, regardless of which country I've lived in. Even when I applied for a job in Korea and asked to be located by the seaside, I was placed in Seoul -- a landlocked and dense city, where the word 'silence' does not exist. And yet I can never get used to these sounds. Sometimes they overwhelm me so much, I just want to crawl into my bed and hide under the blankets in an effort to drown them out.

Silence is important. We all have to embrace it and learn to love it. Silence helps us reset. It makes our mental chaos start to organize itself and makes otherwise large tasks seem doable. If we're overwhelmed, a few moments of silence can provide perspective. And these days I feel like I need a lot of that -- perspective.

When you keep going on and on for so long, it becomes easy to forget about yourself. And I think that's one of the worst things that can happen. I'm learning quickly that as we get older, life doesn't get easier, and it certainly doesn't get any less confusing. But the one thing that needs to remain consistent (no matter how difficult it can be) is our relationship with ourselves. Because if we lose focus of that... well that's when the real trouble begins.

So here's me embracing silence and being so grateful for the quiet moments in my life. I may have been left behind in this weekend's rapture, but it's moments like these that make me quite happy to be exactly where I am.

I hope you don't fight the quiet moments in your life. Do what you love at that time. Find your silence and make it count. Do things for yourself, and watch how quickly you'll find your happy. 

xo

Image courtesy of Google Images