Quietness

I have lived with at least six to forty something other people for the last year of my life. And every place I lived there was countless amounts of outside noise as well as whatever the people I was living with were doing.

There was 48 hour non stop wedding music from oour neighbors in Cambodia, the club down the road from where we stayed in Kenya and the 5 am morning call to pray for the Muslims, there were never ending people passing by our house in Tanzania and cats meowing at all hours of the night, there were roosters crowing ever hour of the day (and night in Ukraine), the honks of the horns on buses and the busyness on the streets in Malaysia, so you get the point.

I don’t think I heard silence for the whole 11 months I was gone. Noise, music, or voices became comfortable. Sure it was annoying at times when I was very tired or trying to focus but for the most part it was normal and welcomed and beautiful. I wouldn’t change anything about it.

Since being home I think I’ve become somewhat afraid of silence. I’ll always try to have music on or even a fan a night just for the noise. It’s been weird to have any silence at all since being home and in a quiet neighborhood in small town Georgia it’s easy to find.

Today I decided to turn everything off and I’m actually loving it. The dogs are not even barking. I’m okay with the silence. It’s beautiful to me today. I have no idea why. It’s just okay. God is here and there is peace to dwell upon.