Oh, be quiet.

When you live alone, some people pity you. It must be so lonely, so quiet, they say. I harbor a secret confession. It is something I love, something I feed on and something that few can enjoy. It's the quiet of being alone. Our lives are full of sound and few know what silence truly is. When you live alone, at first, you think it is too quiet and you begin to yearn to have something noisy to do and someone to talk to. At that point, lots of people run out and buy a dog or cat or bird to fill the gap they think is too hard to contemplate. But when the loneliness of living alone, disappears, and you become  accustomed to the atmosphere of the solitary life, you see its value and become in a way, rather jealous of it. When you do go out and about, of course, it is a pleasure to meet and greet, but when you return home, the peace of your singular existence welcomes you and wraps you in the kind of peace that more and more becomes compelling and takes on a value. While the sounds of outside voices, traffic, animals and far away events  are fun to guess at, within your domicile, there is an inside quietness and order that is completely comforting. You are in the company of your own thoughts and are able to sort them out and untangle the ones that haunt you or the ones that intrigue you. There are no interruptions. Today, after re-potting a few small plantings on the patio, I came inside and found the kind of silence that fills every corner spread out like a magic carpet.  It was an enormous gift. I knew that outside, the rest of the world was busy going places, doing things and exchanging ideas, but here in the place I call home, there was simple open silence like a great question mark waiting to be answered. The dogs that  bark were not, the cars and buses that ply the streets were, for some reason, away from the immediate area and the neighbours were so without presence, that I imagined them sitting at quiet dinner tables in peace. Noise was missing. Thoughts could be born and  live and thrive.  The meditative qualities of the silence made even my eyes rove about in my own environment, rediscovering photographs and art prints and the small things sitting on shelves and tables. I was hearing my space speaking to me in the silence, in ways I hadn't thought of previously. I wondered how many stresses in the "outside" world, could be eased if sometimes there was simply, silence so that matters could be considered clearly and without the interference of sound to distract thought. There are no traffic days on some streets, therefore, perhaps there could be days of silence that exclude even texting and typing and treadmills. A quiet world day would be a wonder.