In our backyard stand two metal chairs….in the snow. For some reason they did not get put away for the season and just stayed out there like sturdy sentinels of the backyard fire-pit. (Yes there is a fire-pit buried under the snow.)
I took my backyard photos in the silence of a sunlit winter afternoon. After pondering a bit I decided that silence can be slightly deceptive. It looks so quiet and white back there in the wintertime. What you don’t see is the dormant grass under the snow just waiting for warmth and sunlight to melt the snow so it can spring up into a lush green carpet.
The flowers in the flower patch are waiting patiently for their time to break free of cold frozen soil and once again grow and bloom gloriously this coming summer. The evergreen trees stand quietly, preparing for families of robins, mornings doves and blue-jays that will nest in their branches.
What you don’t hear are the rustlings of the little creatures that burrow in tunnels beneath the snow. You also don’t hear the echos of the summers’ past. Those humid days where bees fly lazily past in search of the next brightly colored flower….the crackle of logs burning in the fire-pit with flames leaping into the sky.
You don’t smell the the smoke from that fire or taste the charred marshmallows toasted over it’s flickering flames. If you close your eyes, to the whiteness of the snow, you can almost conjure up visions of last summer and hear and see it all again.
I think it might be the same for so many things. What we perceive, when just looking at a person, is probably totally different from the reality of that person. We have no idea of the roads they have traveled, the places they have visited or the feelings locked away in the depths of their hearts and minds.
When faced with situations that seem beyond our control it is good to listen…. to be still and know…to listen to the silence and the song it is singing. Underneath the silence runs a melody that is filled with life and hope. It is giving a chance to breathe in and breathe out and know that life, like the dormant grass, is waiting to come back lush, green and vibrant.
For now….those two metal chairs sitting in the snow by a buried fire-pit are a reminder….silence may not be so silent after all if you just listen closely. Things are not always as they appear on the surface. There are so many layers that are not obvious at first glance and first listening.
If you want to truly know something….listen with more than your ears….look with more than your eyes. Listen and look with your heart and your memories to find the music that silence is singing.
I’ve begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own.
Chaim Potok
We need to pay heed to the many silences in our lives….
each silence has a character of its own.
~Kent Nerburn,
“The Eloquence of Silence,” Small Graces: The Quiet Gifts of Everyday Life, 1998
So beautifully put. The silence holds so much more than a simple stillness. It’s the layers that make us smile. I love this thought provoking post.
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So glad you enjoyed it Lisa. It was a beautiful crisp afternoon in the backyard. A good time to stop and really experience it.
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I enjoyed your vibrant silence. Beautiful photo.
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Thank you so much Anne. I love coming out your way to enjoy your photos!
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Music and silence. Two opposites that make a whole. Thank you for allowing me to think with my heart this morning.
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Thank you so much! Sometimes things just kind of hit me upside the head and I really take a good look around me. There is always something new to learn!
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Faye, you are a true romantic! You can paint with words.
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Thank you so much Al. I think I am just probably an eternal optimist. Life is so good being an optimist! Though….yes….also a bit of a romantic LOL. You just gave me the best compliment ever about painting with words and I sincerely thank you for that.
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At certain times, silence is so valuable…so revealing. Like this post very much.
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I am so glad you enjoyed it. My husband found my scribbled notes about ideas for this post and he looked really puzzled as it was the odd word here and there. I told him not to worry…I just needed them to remind me of the thoughts that had come to me when I was outside.
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I love silence but you are right it isn’t really.
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Silence can be really beautiful and refreshing. Maybe it is the very quiet undertones of music in that silence?
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A truly beautiful post and accompanying photo.
My Grandad used to tell me that to REALLY know something or someone, you must listen … and be still. He would take me to the park and we’d sit on the grass and after a while he’d say… “Shush for a moment and listen. Stay really still … tell me quietly what you can hear” … and there I was, this tiny little scrap of nothingness (I have photos – I know what I looked like lol), and I’d be able to hear things that we all ignore or take for granted. I could hear something in the grass, but couldn’t see what it was. A bird singing a song (which my Grandad told me was a Robin- or a Blackbird, a Thrush, a Jenny Wren etc). I could even hear the breeze. Silly as that sounds I could actually hear it. It had a sound.
And today …. I love all the silences that I can find – for it allows the world to speak to me, and gives me chance to understand a language that I might not know.
Thank you so much for this post Chicken. It brought me into your world and allowed me to listen to you, and the story that I heard made footprints across my heart – which will never leave me. Imprints which will last for life. Beautiful.
Thank you Chicken.
Sending love ❤ ~ Cobs. xxx
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I somehow knew you would understand the music of silence Cobs. I am so glad you had a granddad who took the time to introduce to the special language of the wind.
Chicken Granddad has been doing that with the oldest two grandkids. They sit outside in the dark on the porch glider at night listening for owls. While they wait they sometimes are treated to the sound of birds settling in for the night, coyotes howling, and yes….the sound of the wind.
So glad I could bring back some great memories for you Cobs. Here is hoping you had a great day and some time to listen to the wind speak just to you. Lots of love your way!
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A beautiful and meaningful post-oh to understand the heart of one another is as worthy a cause, as I know of. How little we would judge, I think.
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I think you are so right Michele…..We have no idea what load someone else might be carrying on any given day. I suspect you are right….we would be a lot less judgmental.
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Of all the thing you’ve written, Faye, I think this is the most beautiful. There are so many layers of truth and understanding here that I’ve found myself reading it over and over again…and now I’m printing it out.
Really well done..:)…both your words and photo.
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Thank you so much George. Sometimes God just lets the words make it out of my heart and through my fingertips. Makes me grateful.
How is it going by you? I think of you and your wife often.
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We’re doing well. She is scheduled for eight chemo treatments over six months and then six weeks of radiation. Her second one is next week…so one day at a time. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, Faye..:)
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