Silence

A while back, I jotted this note on a piece of paper:

Silence feeds the soul or destroys it according to what it has been fed.

As best as I can recall, it was an original thought conjured in a moment of silence and aloneness in a hotel room on a business trip. Having stumbled upon it again recently in the process of unpaking boxes in the office, I decided it was as good a writing starter as any, so here goes.

Silence is that place where a man begins to know himself. Silence drives the tormented over the edge, yet it brings the contented man peace. In silence, the Buddha found enlightenment. In that same place of silence, I have no doubt that Hitler faced his demons.

Silence is where a man measures himself against his own standard. It is where he hides from the chaos of life or where the cacophany of disturbing thoughts drives him back to the chaos of life.

At different times along the way, I have loathed or coveted silence. In times when I was neglecting the spirit within, I ran from the silence - avoiding it at all costs. Whether turning up some music or mindlessly staring into the television or finding refuge in the idle conversation of any friend I could convince to shield me from the quiet, I fought to keep the noise going around me to drown the noise in my mind.

At other times, when I was taking better care of my soul, the silence was a place of refuge. A place to relax and escape the bustle of life. Silence brought peace and calm along with a sense of centeredness that readied me for the next challenge.

So I suppose that what I meant by my statement is that when I am feeding my soul regularly, the silence brings joy. And when I neglect my soul, the silence brings torment. It only takes a quiet moment to measure the care I've given to my soul recently, and the pace at which I retreat from the silence reveals much about my life at any given moment.