The great of the earth are those who leave silence and solitude around themselves, their work and their life, and let it ripen of its own accord."-Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Do you need silence to create? To get in touch with yourself, your Spirit inside? I find sometimes I really need it but more I just need it for renewal, but funny enough, some of my greatest ideas come from when I am cleaning the house, making dinner, helping with homework , and trying to figure out where to go for vacation- all at once...see, I am also that way with homework..if I have noise around me, then my brain doesn't drift off...its like the outer noise allows me to keep the inner noise quiet...I am a dreamer, a drifter...I have a hard time staying focused when it is quiet..maybe this comes from growing up in a large family- when I first moved out of my parents house, I would turn on the tv and radio for background noise...silence just is a little to LOUD for me...now with 4 boys and my partner, I find my creativity sparks when there is a little commotion in the background...Strange, doesn't that sound? I can feel quiet inside even if there is alot around me...I have always been that way..Now I am learning to feel quiet in silence...meditation helps, deep breathing, I have what Buddhists call "a monkey mind" and little by little I am slowing down the endless chatter in my head...I wonder how my creativity will change when I start to give myself more time to create when there is silence around me...
I probably do need silence, however I never get any, as my 17 yr old plays the guitar constantly. He will play the guitar while listening to the television, watching the computer monitor and bothering me, all at the same time. I'm willing to be bothered, as quiet will catch me a couple of years from now in my empty nest. For now, morning is my time. Not because it is the time I prefer, but it is mine by default - nobody else wants it. Do you ever worry that when the silence arrives, a peaceful space for all the thoughts to thrive, no thoughts will?
ReplyDeleteyes. Except that sometimes I have to many thoughts to sort through...plus, I hear ya on the guitar, my partner is also a musician and he plays after the kids go to bed! which is usually my only time to get silence...
ReplyDeleteI long for silence- but find that when I have it I get overwhelmed with thoughts! I have a hard time focusing when it is too quiet. My creative moments come in the least convenient times. I alway think I should set a side "quiet" time to do songwriting but when I do I end up sitting there with wondering thoughts and not much creative work being done. Lyrics do seem to comw to me when I'm cleaning house or cooking dinner though! I'm always thinking "hold that thought" until I can write it down!
ReplyDeleteSince I have moved we don't have a tv in the living room and no radio. Sometimes it's so quiet that my roommate and I literally have to say...wow, it's quiet in here. But I have noticed that it really promotes conversation between the two of us. I have actually begun to enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteI feel completely the opposite. If I am in a library, I need to go far away from everyone...that silence is what keeps me focused. I just don't know how teenagers listen to their i pods while they do their homework. I shake my head, but if they can do, good for them!
ReplyDeleteshe