#SOL18 Day 9

To hear, one must be silent. ~ Ursula K. LeGuin

Right now I have a pressure headache.  I am sure it is sinus related due to the ever fluctuating barometric pressure here in the Mid-Atlantic region.  Although I think it could also have something to do with the fact that grades close today, and all my grades need to be in by 8:00 AM Monday morning.  I have been diligently working at finishing up my grading and chasing down students who owe me assignments. It is about this time every semester that I start to question why I assigned so many things. On the flip side, I am really enjoying reading my students’ writing and seeing the gradual improvement. They are starting to get it, and that makes teaching even a bigger joy!  All this coupled with some stressful things going on at home, my head feels like it might explode, and I have been in a state of high anxiety all day.

That being said, my goal for the weekend is to stay in the moment and enjoy some silence.  We have a busy weekend planned, but that is OK, because it is filled with things I want to do.  Tonight and Sunday night we will be attending Jazz Band competitions. My son is the music director at a local high school, and we just love to hear his band and see the results of his hard work and dedication.  Saturday night we have tickets to see The Spinners in Atlantic City. For all you youngins – they are a R & B group from the 60s and 70s who had a string of fun hits. Granted the group we are going to experience on Saturday are not the original members except for one, but they continue to entertain with that fabulous Motown sound.

So I guess you might be wondering by now where the silence comes in. I have noticed this week that there is always something “on” in my life.  Whether it be the TV (which was tuned to the weather most of this past week), the radio in my car, or Spotify wherever I am working on one of my devices, I am never without some outside “noise” swirling around my head.  

When I get home today, I will not be turning on the TV to keep me company until my husband gets home.  I will not have the TV on when I retreat to my bedroom. I will listen. I will sit in the silence and really hear and listen to the sounds that are normally obscured by my need to “fill space.”

Silence can wonderful and silence can be scary.  I’ll let you know how it is for me this weekend. Who knows, maybe I will find some new sounds to write about.