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As a child I used to love lying in bed listening to the rain. Hearing it pitter patter against the window made me feel very safe and sound. Indeed, I’d often wish it would keep raining just so I could stay awake for longer. Same is still true today actually (although tinnitus makes it all a bit distorted). Nonetheless, for me, it is such a comforting sound.
There are other comforting sounds too. Those heard while walking on a country lane. A gently flowing stream.
As well as in nature, though, there is plenty to listen to in the world going on around us. Whether it’s the sound of bat against ball. A cafe full of chat and music can bring comfort too at times.
But when we are surrounded by noisy traffic, it might be a different matter.
And sometimes the noise of life can be simply overwhelming.
We can feel unsafe and unsound.
There are those times when the ‘volume’ of life, its demands, events and pressures, are all too much, all far too loud. So loud in fact (rather like a dreadful concert we went to recently) it completely distorts everything we are trying to listen to in this life we call life.
Of course, the absence of noise doesn’t necessarily make life peaceful. Silence itself can be unsettling.
But if the noise of life squeezes out all that makes for feeling safe and sound then how do reset the balance?
For me, there are times when I need, when I actually crave, quiet. Times not necessarily to be silent or for there to be an absence of noise. But times to straighten out the distortion, to reset the balance. Times to sit quietly in one chair, with God in the other one.
Rowan Williams wrote ‘Our words’ (often the loudest sound of all of course) ‘help to strengthen the illusions with which we surround, protect and comfort ourselves; without silence, we shan’t get any closer to knowing who we are before God.’
Paying attention to the noise around us can help us to pay attention to the noise within us.
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Details of my books can be found at richardfrostauthor.com.