Quiet

I'm not sure what it is about the middle of the night.  It's always in the dead of night, when I'm alone with my thoughts, that I feel prompted to write.  I think the biggest reason is all the noise in life.  "Noise" has such a loud and harsh connotation.  "Noise" is what adults are always hushing in children.  "Noise" is what keeps an outside of town dweller from sleeping while visiting a big city.  But noise isn't always bad; it isn't always loud.  "Noise" can be friends laughing and catching up after months or years apart.  "Noise" is a new member of the family crying.  "Noise" can simply be the gentle hum of routine during your day.  Noise surrounds us constantly.  It can be audible noise, sensory noise, written noise, screen noise.  The thing we don't get enough of is quiet.

When we are quiet, it allows our brain to focus on one thing: us.  Our thoughts and feelings that aren't readily available during daily life are filtered to the surface.  I know that not everyone is like me, and that some people are very decided feelers or thinkers.  Everything they want to say comes right out, in the correct way, the first time.  Some people immediately know when that twinge of feeling rises, the name and cause of the emotion.  But for people like me, that twinge is nameless.  It's felt too deep inside to dig out at a moment's notice.  Those thoughts seem lost somewhere in the back of your mind, and even when you will them to come out of your mouth, they spill forth like a tangled mess.  I believe that everyone needs quiet, but especially people like us.  It allows the time and space to process those thoughts and emotions.  To give names to everything and file it in the proper spot.

Quiet isn't just for processing.  It is for creativity.  So often that word is associated with crafting or making something tangible.  That is the most visual result and usually what one is trying to attain.  But creativity in itself is something more than a product.  Creativity is a frame of mind.  It is cultivating new ideas.  A melding together of perception, intellect, imagination, and experience.  When you are given the quiet, and the mental space to produce creativity, there is so much good that can come from that.

I believe quiet is also for healing.  In addition to the healing that our bodies receive when our bodies are asleep, or quiet, there is also healing when our minds are quiet.  Maybe you are like me and sometimes the quiet allows you to think "too much."  I have often felt that way.  But instead of running away from those thoughts and feelings that are trying to surface,  if we process and work through them, I really believe healing can come from that.  It's not pleasant nor easy.  It will be painful.  Believe me, I know the mental anguish that comes from replaying a painful conversation over and over in my head, feeling the same each time as I felt in that moment, even if it happend years ago.  Or dwelling on a damaging even that occurred, wondering what you could have done to prevent it.  Wondering why it even happened in the first place.  But there is a place we can get to if we do the hard work of processing through all of that mess.  The way we process might be different.  Maybe quiet isn't the first step for you, or maybe you need someone to help you process through everything.  But in the end, to be at a place where you can still your thoughts and be at peace, that is a beautiful thing.

Quiet is a beautiful thing.