I grew up in a house full of noise. The television was always on, my parents liked to yell, my sister and I could be rambunctious and to top it all off I am from New York, where we are just naturally loud.
Everywhere you go there is noise. But lately, on a rare occasion, when my son isn’t home and my husband is upstairs in his man cave, I have learned to appreciate the silence. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family and spending time with them but I have truly come to appreciate when there is quiet.
I was always a big fan of television myself and felt it always had to be on, most likely as a result of my childhood obsession with TV. But now as a busy adult who is surrounded by noise as well as a teenager who can’t get enough of the latest YouTube videos at full volume, I long for the quiet.
Sometimes I opt to just listen to music, and although I’m a big fan of the 80’s classics, I find myself more and more listening to a nice instrumental mix of jazz. I have to ask myself, when did I become an adult just looking for the simple things in life? By letting myself take in the quiet I can enjoy listening to my dog contently breathe as he sleeps, the birds chirping outside my back door, and the faint sound of cars driving by. There’s so much noise in this world and there are times we just need a break from it, especially since moments of silence happen so rarely.
What I have learned is to take in these golden moments of silence because once my son ventures out on his own and it’s just me and my husband sitting in our empty nest, I’m sure I will be longing for the noise once again.
