Silence is defined as, the “absence of sound or noise.”
Antonyms = quiet, peace, calm, hush, lull, stillness,
quiescence, noiselessness
I am a person who loves details. It’s what helped me all through school while growing
up. It enabled me to be on the newspaper
staff, as well as the yearbook staff. I excelled in my English Comp classes,
and poetry writing. I love English (writing
and talking)! Details have helped me do book reviews for
different organizations and authors. It
enables me to write articles for different newsletters. And in return, it also
is what helped our three older daughters excel in their writing while growing
up as homeschooled children.
However, the question remains…Why
can’t I “just keep quiet? Skip the details? “Shut up?!” Why do I bog down my husband with detailed
talking? He truly hates listening to me talk.
He only wants a shortened version,
if that, of whatever I am talking about.
Perhaps my voice actually grinds on his nerves? After 26½ years, you’d think I would remember
this and have learned by now. I have nothing to say that interests him. My life revolves around our children,
grandchildren, home schooling, and church.
Once you’ve heard it all, you’ve heard it all. He does different things daily at work. Each and every day bring new challenges and
opportunities. He is an important asset
to the company. He sees other people all
day. He eats out with different people all
during the week. He has numerous phone
calls with other adults during the day.
He is an incredibly smart man. What
am I, but a wife and mother? YES, I am greatly blessed by this!! But, I feel that to my husband, I am nothing
more than a person “doing my job.” “What
I am doing, is what I am supposed to do (as a wife and mother).” To him, it is a tedious job. So, he tires of hearing about it. Insistently, I go on, doing what I do,
wondering why I can’t get this one specific thing right…”quietness.” Why do I persist at trying to tell him about
things? I don’t know? Sometimes, I believe, it is in hopes of
peaking some interest from him in something,
anything that I do, or say.
So maybe I should look at what “Silence”
is from a Biblical point of view… "Silence"
in spirituality is often a metaphor for inner stillness. A silent mind, freed
from the surplus of thoughts and thought patterns, that are both a goal and an
important step in spiritual development. Such "inner silence" is not
about the absence of sound; instead, it is understood to bring one in contact
with the divine, the ultimate reality, or one's own true self, one's divine
nature. Many religious traditions imply the importance of being quiet and still
in mind and spirit for transformative and integral spiritual growth to occur.
Maybe I should put my goal
toward this kind of quietness? To grow spiritually
if not in other ways.
Ironically enough, these two
phrases have become popular throughout the centuries;
"Silence
is a woman's best garment."
“Speech is
silver; silence is golden”
Perhaps I either need to work
even harder to learn from these phrases, or if nothing else, it is time for society
(and maybe my husband), to see women over-all as someone with worthy words to
share, details to adhere to.
