Shh

It's been something of a strange week. Between being one of the few people in the office and spending time on my balcony at home, this has been an unusually quiet stretch. That's not a complaint. At a point in time when it seems like most people are more comfortable filling the background with persistent noise than dare inhabit a hushed space, this is a rare thing.

I'll confess to being fried here at the end of the academic year and feeling perpetually distracted. I think that's part of the reason why I've turned to reading and sitting on the balcony. (Or, per tonight's activity, I sat outside in the cool evening and began a knitting project.) The wind blowing through the trees and the birds singing provide a subdued, calming soundtrack. Yes, that relative silence can be interrupted by the pulsing of someone's subwoofer, but those low frequency beats can be ignored a little more with some of nature's white noise.

Outer silence makes it easier to find inner silence. For as pushed and pulled in every direction that I've felt for some time, this break in the sonic landscape seems to be letting me regain some peace. It's a nice transition to the upcoming weekend, which will find me out of town going to a weekend series of baseball games. I don't currently have any other plans. Maybe I'll find something else to do, maybe I'll pick something to read and find a quiet spot to become immersed in it. I could surely stand a little more of that tranquility.