Sound of silence...

Sound of silence

The sound of silence is a strange place. It’s scary at first. It seems too empty for those who are used to the noise of notifications, the sound of other people’s voices, the rush of urban footsteps. But those who stay in it long enough begin to hear something precious: themselves.

For a long time, I was afraid of silence. It seemed to be synonymous with loneliness, abandonment, absence. When the house got too quiet, I would turn on the television just to hear something. When life slowed down, I filled my days with tasks, commitments, conversations that meant nothing. All so as not to face the echo that silence would bring me. All so as to escape the confrontation with myself.

Time

But with time — and perhaps with fatigue — I began to allow empty spaces. I gradually turned down the volume of life. First, I turned off the music while I wrote. Then, I started walking without headphones. Later, I started having my breakfast in silence. Not a forced, sad silence, but a silence full of presence. A silence that welcomed me as if to say: “You don’t need to pretend now.”

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