Quietude

Spending my day in classrooms means I'm used to a certain noise level.   It's not noisy all the time but it can be, especially during art class or playtime.  It's a thing you get used to.  When I'm on the yard at lunchtime I love the sound of children playing and laughing, it's a beautiful thing.  However they also argue and fall and cry.

In the evenings I bring my son and sometimes a friend home after school.  Again there is noise and shouting and that is as it should be.  But sometimes I make myself a cup of tea, sit at the kitchen table and look out at the garden in total silence.  I can feel the vibrations from the day leave my body.  Other times I go for a walk and clear my head.  I keep asking my son for 'quiet' but then I feel guilty because he's only doing what little boys do.

The rest of the day I have the radio or T.V. on and there is noise following me around the house.  Living in the country means I've gotten used to quietude.  Or so I think, but when I wake up early in the morning I don't like the solitude.  The Dawn Chorus has stopped since a motorway was built in front of our house.  I miss it.  It used to be deafening and I would wonder how anyone could sleep through the cacophony of the birds.  However I just turn on Chill FM or Lyric FM and they lull me back to sleep.  Perhaps I don't like the Quiet as much as I thought.