The Sounds of Silence

I slept in this morning - well slept in to me - I woke up at 7:30 - which for someone who often is up at 5 and almost always up by 6 is definitely sleeping in!.

Anyhooo.... the bedroom curtains were open and I could tell from the light coming in that it was either snowing or had snowed as it was that soft, gray light that happens when the world outside is covered with a light blanket of new snow.

By the time I actually got up and got my coffee, it had started snowing again - the kind of soft, flakes that drift softly down to earth. I opened the back door and stepped out onto the deck and was hit by the silence enveloping the world.

It was dead calm and so quiet that I just stood there wondering at how a world as bustling as ours could be so quiet. The fact it is Sunday morning in a small town possibly contributes to the quiet. No oil workers in their diesel trucks roaring off to work. No construction workers pounding nails in the new house next door. No kids laughing as they head off to school. No far off sounds from the highway as commuters head to their destinations.

A kind of soft, quietness had enveloped our world - it seemed so strange that it commanded me to stand there in my pajama's and take note. I can't imagine it is a quietness that many in our populated world get to appreciate living where this kind of silence never happens given the 24 hour hustle and bustle of our cities.

But here - in our small town - on a Sunday morning in Feburary - with the soft snow flakes drifting down - I experienced the beauty of total quiet.

I heard the sounds of silence.