Moments of silence and stillness are necessary to the human mind and soul; they give room to thought and creativity.
The hum off in the distance, which I first noticed a few months ago, is still going. I discovered it one night at 2 am when, in a moment of sleeplessness, I stepped out onto the back deck to look at the stars, take a deep breath, and bask in the silence. Yet, instead of silence, there was a hum.
Today, I set out my lounge cushions on the back deck to enjoy a few moments of quiet in the sunshine. Only, there was nothing quiet about the moment. Even in the pause of voices, vehicles, and lawn equipment, that hum is there, deafening to my senses, because it is no longer possible to enjoy the sweetness of nature’s sounds and silence.
Rest is something we’re told to adopt into our lives for our health. But do we ever rest our brains? With a constant barrage of noise from every direction, our senses rarely, if ever, have a break. My soul grieves that there’s hardly a place in our world that has a pure silence and stillness to it. Not an absolute silence, void of chirping or rustling of leaves; that is deadness. Not to be mistaken with peaceful silence.
Even so, as much as we can find it, silence and stillness are critical to our mental and soul health. Not to mention, they are the food of thought and creativity.
PHOTO OF THE DAY: I took this photo as I was writing this thought in my journal. Taken May 24, 2026. Table Rock Lake, Missouri.
