THE SILENCE this morning felt like warm, translucent gold. And cushioned my mind like soft, deep velvet.
I started going deaf in my 30’s and, the sound of silence became stronger and deeper. That sound of silence took on different tones depending on where I was. When I went to meditate at the end of the road with the Buddhist group I’m now part of, the silence during meditation felt like the dawn chorus. The room seemed full of birds singing the day alive. Of course it wasn’t, but this was just the way my body and mind were experiencing the sound of silence in the room, the tonal quality of it. I know this sounds odd, but maybe if you’re partly deaf it will make sense.
This morning my little golden Buddha, two inches tall, shines in the early light. The carved golden bronze glistening into the heartfelt morning silence.
Outside, my window boxes are filling up with rich green leaves, translucent as the early morning sun shines through them. Calendula and parsley are first up. The basil, red spring onions, wild rocket, radishes and little gem lettuces, still out of view beneath the soil.
I don’t have my allotments since moving last year, and so my window boxes are my land. For now. I am busy dreaming up the most perfect of settings to find me, so that I can root myself properly into this, beautiful, world.
Dreaming
There is a shared garden out back. The guy who lives downstairs has been growing food in it for over 30 years, and he makes it lovely. I have planted some coriander and potatoes. This little piece of land is outside his back door and he has lived and worked it for so long, I don’t want to be an intrusion.
So, I dream of potting sheds, old greenhouses, calendula growing among the vegetable beds, forest gardens, woodland walks, sitting under a green canopy writing warm words, and ever so happy days followed by ever so happy nights. As I listen to the owls and walk amongst the vegetable patches in the moonlight.
Photo by Albrecht Fietz
Recipes
Squash carrot hummus
I love simple food that tastes good. So I made this hummus, with roasted purple carrots and crown prince squash, which I popped on top. Then drizzled with a nice tasting olive oil and sprinkled with rock salt. Absolutely delish. I used a basic hummus recipe. I’m on the hunt for the best tasting olive oil, if you know one perhaps you will put it in the comments.
Hummus
INGREDIENTS
3 cups cooked chick peas
1/2 cup tahini
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 cloves chopped garlic
Juice of 1/2-1 lemon (depends on the size)
Rock salt to season
METHOD
Put all the ingredients except the salt into a food processor, beginning with the juice of half the lemon and one chopped clove of garlic. Blitz, adding a little liquid if needed. Then use the salt and remaining lemon juice and garlic, to get the taste you like.
Ayurvedic lowdown
Vata types this is a good light supper for you. Pitta types just use a little oil to drizzle and not too much salt. Kapha types also just use a little salt, add cayenne to the hummus, then drizzle with harissa instead of oil
Fall asleep stories
Here’s another extract from one of my ‘fall asleep’ stories, which I will be recording later in the year, to help people get to sleep. This one is written for children, but the recording will work for stressed adults too. When I trained as a Hypnotherapist the part I enjoyed the most was writing and reading scripts to help people relax their brain. This ‘fall asleep’ story is called ‘Tangerine Beginnings’, and you can find the last extract I posted here. The three dots are where you take a space when reading, to create a rhythm that relaxes the brain.
“Fires are made for everyone to sit around. The fire flames are warm…sending sparks up into the night sky, warming the faces of all the people…giving them a cosy glow as they relax… into the night…Sam loves the warm fires and the cosy faces, and the sound of everyone’s chatter and laughter. And, Sam also loves the silence too…the peace…as the stars come out and shine down…and, ever so slowly, family and friends start to make their way to bed.
Sam lives in a city, it’s a city of villages, full of birdsong. The streets lined with trees. There is a city farm at the end of the street that Sam lives in, and a river that flows past the back of the gardens…wandering about the neighbourhood, with places where you can go swimming, and little islands you can canoe out to, where wild birds nest to raise their young…before flying off into the clear…blue sky.
The river, ever so gently… meanders this way and that…moving out of the city in a flurry of bubbles down to the sea. It’s a long journey, full of fun and sparkle, that Sam travels sometimes too…but today, Sam is staying close to home…because, it is the first day of the holidays, and there will be playing and feasting…and running around the gardens with friends, and giggling…and falling over and not minding.
Sam notices, that the tangerine sky is becoming a pale orange. A dragon fly glides past, its bright blue wings carrying it to the pond in the garden next door, and now a bumble bee flies past too, followed by different insect creatures, all getting on with their lives…
Sam loves..the early morning, it’s like a tapestry that is…every so gently…painting itself alive. And Sam knows, as Tiger swishes past in that relaxed…way of hers, that it is going to be a very very…good, day.”
Photo by David Cardeinez — pixaby
Warmest wishes, until Sunday,
Lucy x
So interesting to read your experience with the changing sound of silence, Lucy. I don't think I have hearing loss (rather, seem to have hearing that's too acute for my liking in most situations). And yet, I'm fascinated by the sound of silence and how it shifts. I'm most present with this during my nightly meditation, but it's always there...if I take a moment to check in and there's not too much overriding machine-made noise. When I pay close attention, I also notice that the texture of the sound is different from one ear to the next.
Lovely, nourishing, thought-inspiring post as always!