Silence is a great healer

Silence is a great healer

Oft the stilly night,
Ere slumber chain has bound me,
Sad Memory brings the Light,
Of Other days around me.
The joy, the tears of boyhood years,
The words of love then spoken,
The eyes that shone,
Now dimmed and gone
The cheerful hearts now broken;
I seem like one; who treads alone
In some banquet hall deserted;
Whose light are fled; whose garlands dead
And all but he departed.

-“The Light of Other Days”-Thomas Hardy

The above is not a sad requiem, but the mirror to everyone's life, each has come alone and each will depart alone, why then do we make an absolute noise and cacophony when we live? Laughter has its energy yet silence is the best companion. If you learn to be silent and happy with yourself, boredom or loneliness will never trouble you. Not everything in life is meant to be understood, some are just meant to be accepted.

Silence is a highly under-rated commodity in today's world. Somehow we have over every passing decade as a society whipped up a frenzy of activity and convinced ourselves that that is what life and being "full of life" is about - constant, chatter, laughter, activity (we even have relaxation activities!), holiday activities, parties with loud music, constant movement.

The days when prayer and meditation were a part of one's life are today passe, who has the time? Rushing to work, rushing to party, rushing to rest...its a rush and a rash of activities.Silence is a great healer. Constant activity unbalances us, causing a disturbance in the way we feel about ourselves and in the way we think about our world.

Even holidays are with friends/family where activities rule the day - very few can honestly say I took a holiday to just relax and do nothing. In fact many a time, one comes back from a holiday more tired than when they went.

Today's urban life as it is has lost its ambient silence, traffic, overcrowded streets, bazaars, movie theaters, restaurants where teeming hundreds are forever around you, boxing you in, forcing you, so to speak to listen to their lives, mobile phones are the biggest bane...there is a total loss of personal space, the cocoon in which you retreat - maybe to lick your wounds and heal, or contemplate your day, or maybe ...just be. You think...I need a break from work, maybe for my kid's  issues, my health...whatever, where do you go? There is no room for quietness, if you think meeting friends will make you feel better...well, it may for a brief period, but your mind is further agitated after a party as you re-live the event, all the conversations, your mind is now processing your earlier issues plus the new ones generated by the party, albeit they may be pleasant. However the mind is again working...not at peace, instead, a better antidote to a stressful day, is to stay at home, sit in complete silence, with maybe a candle throwing its gentle light and in subdued lighting with utter stillness for company. 

Silence restores balance and gives us the ability to experience peace and harmony within ourselves, and to be a source of harmony for others.If you do not take time to be silent, to look quietly at nature, or to listen to God’s voice within you, you rob yourself of the wholeness that is meant to be yours.