From TV to movies to games to music, much less conversation, it's possible to spend all your waking hours with some type of stuff steadily going into your ears and into your mind for analysis and storage. That's before the other stuff: the traffic sounds, construction noise, dogs barking outside, ... you know, the stuff you aren't controlling yourself.
Which means that when you turn everything OFF and the only thing you're hearing is the whirr of the car motor, or the breeze through the branches of a tree, it can be overwhelming. All that internal jumble is still bouncing around inside your head at first, like bees buzzing around. It can be uncomfortable.
Just wait. In a bit, this will subside and after you incorporate some silence into your life, that uncomfortable feeling will go away. And with it, you'll gain an internal harmony that you'll be glad to discover. It's relaxing, even joyful, to experience silence in this noisy life.
And, it's a lot easier to hear that still, small voice without all that other stuff competing for your attention.
'This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength ..., " ' Isaiah 30:15-18 NIV
"Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose."
- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
"True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment."
- William Penn
Image: A mountain stream on Raspberry Island, Alaska. Wikimedia Common, public domain.
