The Sound of Silence

Do you hear it?  It's a beautiful thing.  Your ears are not going to hear sounds outside of the range of 20-20,000 Hz, but your body will.  Right down to every little cell. Sound is experienced all through your body.  Think of ultrasound....it is soundwaves, but you don't hear them. 

Hello darkness my old friend. I've come to talk with you again. Simon and Garfunkel's song. Powerful.  Like silence.  

Japanese Sandman

"That" was the name of the song going through my head I wrote about previously. (in case you wanted to know!) Thanks to my Mother who knew what it was after I hummed just the first line to her.

I woke up this morning with the same song in my head for the past three mornings, and it's funny because I do not know the name of the song nor the words, but I can hear that melody over and over and over and over. It's from the 1920's, upbeat, and quite repetitive.  All I can think of are flappers dancing merrily about on the dance floor without a care in the world.  Is that my "message?"  Maybe lately I have been trying too hard and caring too much about things that I can't do much about anyway.  Yep, I think that's what it is.  Got it.  Short and sweet.  (and sometimes a little slow...)

Sound Transitions

Question:  Do you ever listen to the sounds of the seasons, I mean really listen?  Around the end of the year there are music formats and concerts and special events called "Sounds of the Seasons."  I would ask you to think about the sounds of the other seasons.  The "real" sounds.  What are summer sounds?  You could include songs like Summer Time by Gershwin, or Summer Breeze by Seals and Crofts and that would be a good start.  What about those other summer sounds?  The sounds of the children screaming at each other on a hot day in a cool pool or running from ocean waves, the sea gulls squawking overhead as you sit on your comfortable beach chair, the crickets and cicadas chirping away on a warm evening, the crackling of a fire at your campsite, the nearby trickling brook, the ice cream truck's toy piano tune, the crack of lightning during a refreshing August storm or the fireworks booming in the distance on a hot July 4th.  Sssh....listen to all the sounds in the silence of your memories. You'll hear them. 

And what about Spring?  You think of some sounds this time.  What are some sounds of spring?  Think about it for a moment or two, close your eyes and listen to the sounds of the spring memories you may have forgotten about.  Then of course beautiful Autumn, leaves crunching under foot, and what else? Early Autumn, Autumn Leaves, Autumn in New York.   The silence of a new fallen snow in winter in some parts of the world. What else do you hear?

My point is that if you can pause and recall these sounds with the intention of drawing on each season as a time of transition, one season into the next, you will reinforce them there in the memory of your heart to listen to, to hear, to transport you to that feeling and that time.  You don't have to wait for that actual season to arrive.   As each new season comes and goes, commit to memory what "is." As we transition from one season to another in our personal lives, what are the sounds you remember?

What a powerful force sound is!  I hear my mother calling me to come in for dinner, not so much during the memories of summer, but during those winter afternoons where my sister and I were making the best snow man anyone in the neighborhood had ever seen in their whole lives.  I hear my children laughing and yelling excitedly for us to "Hurry Up!!" when we were walking from our campsite to the free outdoor movies being shown.  I hear the phone ringing in the middle of the night unexpectedly yet knowing the sad news that will come from the voice after I say "Hello?" 

Sound is a fundamental part of the transitions in our lives...treasure what you hear, and hold it close.  When you hear something you don't like, realize it is serving a purpose, perhaps a painful and maybe necessary one.  Yet it is a marker in the transitions of your life, a milestone in every day beingness or something as monumental as "I Do, " or "It's a boy, " or "I'm sorry." 

Do you hear the sounds of times of transitions in your life?  They really are all around us, in songs, in voices, in nature, in the connections of all living things and perhaps most precious of all, our relationships.  Who wouldn't love to hear the voice of a loved one who has transitioned to the other side?  One day we will all hear what we have heard before...laughter, life and love.  And we will know as we have known. Listen ......
Memories light the corners of my mind....of The Way We Were.