Silence

This evening I walked into my room, turned off almost anything emitting light, lay down on the carpet beside my bed with my arms by my side and head looking up at the ceiling and listened...

...'modern' silence ensued.

I think that true silence of yesteryear only exists in a vacuum now because the trappings of modern society - cars, computers, radio's, phones and anything else likely to hum unless switched off from the mains, permeates real silence and taints it. That is why I call it 'modern silence'.

As I listened to cars occasionally pass by and stared out into the darkness, I wondered what it would be like to be somewhere totally devoid of noise? Even in the most remote locations, if there are animals nearby - including the smallest of creatures such as insects, it's difficult to escape sound.

I've always been quite comfortable in silence, much to some people's discomfort but after a while I started to get fidgety and got up to type this. There will forever be some sort of background noise that I affectionately refer to as distractions 'the soundtrack to my existence'.

Whether it's the tapping of my keyboard as I eagerly type away, the clicking of my Blackberry keypad whilst replying to messages, listening to music to compliment my mood, watching TV or a movie as a form of escapism, turning pages of a book to feed my imagination and even my car engine when I'm on my latest excursion...

I realised that my life is peppered with few moments of stillness - in the literal sense.  

But I like it.

As much as I love real silence (or as close to it as I can get), it can sometimes be quite deafening. Yes, I am aware that 'deafening silence' is an oxymoron but then so is 'complex simplicity' and ultimately so am I. It is what it is.

So now I'm wondering, when was the last time any of you sat in silence and how did it make you feel - if anything?

[comments welcomed and appreciated]