Silence and Sounds by Sandy Jones

Sandy's Reflections

Silence is not the absence of sounds.....

When my kids were little, I would take them outside on the porch swing and I would sit with them and we would try to hear as many sounds as we could. And we would name them, trying to discern and pick out all the sounds we could find, all the sounds from here to there as far and close as we could....

...Searching with our ears perked and open to the world around us we could hear the distant sound of an airplane, the whinny of the horses down in the neighbor's pasture, the far away buzzing of someone using an electric saw, the hawk call coming from the sky above....what else can we hear.....

...and moving closer we would hear the sound the babbling creek next to the house, the creak of the lounge swinging as we sat listening, and the rustle of the wind in the leaves of the trees, the bird song, twitter and chirps...

.....from inside the house the sound of the dryer tumbling the freshly laundered cloths.......

.....we shift our hearing and now, close by, a bee bumbling near us, and I hear the breathing of those little children next to me as they sit so intent searching out all the sounds we could find......

....and then, oh yes, then that most wonderful sound in all the world, the sound of the car coming up the long dirt-gravel drive and the honk of the horn and the kids yelling "Daddy's home! Daddy's home!" ....

....that's It, that's the music to my ears and the song of my heart......

....and then the all pursuing noises of the scuffle of kids and joy and delight, giggles and love and commotion and words "How was your day, my Love".....

.....Oh yes, I love sounds.....blessed sounds of Life and Wonder and Mystery......Sound is such a marvelous and sensual thing....Silence is not the absence of sound....

....sound, the beauty of sounds. Here I am, I can hear a distant car door slam and an engine start, I hear a bird singing from branch of the tree outside the window, I hear the computer hummm, I hear my fingers clicking the keys......

......I hear love right here, right now, everywhere I hear It, I see It, I feel It, I touch It and It touches me.....I am emersed in God's Living Wonder.

Sandy Jones

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William Samuel & Friends
Literary Executor Sandy Jones
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