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The Sound Of Silence
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I don’t usually listen to anything while I’m working - I find the words in songs tend to get in the way of the words I’m trying to write. Which means that, much of the time, I’m at home sat in silence. Well, silence of a sort, depending on the strength of the day’s tinnitus.
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Headphones in, forest sounds piped into my ears, I found myself unwinding. The sounds in a forest are many layered. Different birds come and go, or hop closer in the trees before flitting further away. Branches creak, insects buzz, seed heads warm and crackle open in the sun. In a forest in Lithuania, I could hear the same wood pigeons and chiffchaffs that sang in the woods of my childhood.
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Outside is not silent - save perhaps for in the dead of winter, when snow muffles everything and wildlife does its best to conserve energy and keeps quiet. Natural noise is not disturbing - it’s relaxing. It’s only indoors, four walls keeping outdoor sounds at bay, that things are close to silent. In that quiet, we hear the electrical buzz of wiring, the hum of the fridge, the eeeee of tinnitus. It’s here that sounds are annoying.
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There’s a fair amount of ‘pursuit of silence’ type marketing. Earplugs and meditation apps that invite you to embrace your inner mind, or something. I can’t help but feel that getting outside is the better source of peace. Not to silence, but away from human noise - especially the white noise roar of machinery and engines. Once the pant of your breathing subsides, and the pulse in your ears quiets, what will you hear out there? Go and find out.
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