Living in a land where few speak my mother tongue, most of the language around me is simply sound – there are many children here and none of them are silent – so it is often a cacaphony of big sound. But the sound is sound … laughter, play – as of the birds, or even of the highway – or the city noise. It has no verbal meaning to me.. it is noise – sometimes harmonious and sometimes not.

At times it is simply too much and is difficult for me to just allow it to ‘be’ in the background especially if joined by the intensity of the dog barking close to my door or the Shelter cat yowling to be fed.

But I have found that social chatter – ‘what happened when’, talk of things we cannot do anything about – politics, ‘who is doing what’ -‘ who did what to whom and when’ – creates  a clatter in the mind that is far more disturbing than the bark of the dog!

Yes being on the outside of conversations, having no idea of the meaning – is difficult and frustrating at times – but the gaps – the space – the place to allow the flow of the quiet to just be – this has become deeply significant to me.

Let me not become a recluse,
or one who cannot tolerate the chatter of the world –
but gift to me the silence of the spirit and the heart.

And when I find not that space within myself –
allow me to hear the wisdom of those around me
who will remind me where I shall seek that space again
to heal the mind and the spirit of the noise of our world
that keeps us from the depth of understanding.

Stillness within
the quiet of the heart
freedom of being
to soar above sound
to dive deep
the blessing of silence
deep inside
a gift
a present
a now
a breath