The Power of Silence

The Power of Silence

 

I come from noisy people. We were all loud and musical. Every one shouted and screamed to be heard. We were not (as my mother posited) more honest than other families. There was always a bustle, a hum, a noises. High on drama.
I liked to be outside but outside on a farm is no oasis of silence. The noise is just different.
TK, my hubby, came from the opposite kind of family. No-one talks about anything, ever if they can help it. It took him a while to learn to talk and me a while not to shout (work in progress right?) but I am comfortable with silence in a way I could not have imagined as a child. I don't need music to block out my thoughts (other sounds on occasion because my neighbours are noisy) but I don't need to talk, or sing, or make noise to block out myself, or anyone else for that matter.
Recently we were in a taxi going to go shopping and after a short conversation me, TK and mini-witch drifted into silence. For us it was not awkward or uncomfortable just the opposite. The driver did not feel comfortable and felt compelled to play the radio. It was then that it struck me how comfortable we are with wordlessness, stillness and being with each other and how "the world" is not like that.
I still tend to babble when nervous but as I was sat here drinking my tea, in silence, it again struck me.
The contentedness of accepting a space and just being in it. I think I want to explore this wordlessness and silence in ritual. I think it will be interesting and strange but for me that makes it more compelling. Ritual for me is a ebb and flow of words and I enjoy the use of sacred voice (I have even taught workshops on it); but silence is not the opposite of that. It is the punctuation. The frames around the text, giving context and meaning.

*image is from Tarot of the Old Path by Sylvia Gainsford