Sounds Of The Unheard, A Connection To Self
By Joop Delahaye
Silence: The perennial challenge in my meditation practice.
Tara Brach says that that is the real draw for her now in her meditation practice.
I am not sure if that is true for me. I have been attracted to the sounds of the usually unheard things when “normal” sounds are absent. That has been something I have paid attention to most of my life.
No planes overhead, no 101 traffic, no Petaluma Creamery machinery, no dumb drivers going west on B Street. No leaf blowers or power washers! What is there when these are absent?
What is there now? Swaying tree branches, birds in my neighbor’s old tree, the wind. The “thermal compressions” I have heard for years. I have learned to listen for it, to it. This sound became a barometer of my connection to self, to the quiet space inside. How many seconds until I hear it? There it is.
Some might label it “ringing in the ears,” the aftermath of a loud concert at the Fillmore, or Carousel Ballroom on Van Ness, or, later, the Sleeping Lady in Fairfax. Maybe . . . but I like it now. It is an ally, not unpleasant, not hostile.
It is a grounding wire connecting to a more silent world, a world of greater harmony with self and surroundings. This inner sound seems to spread down the body, straightening the spine, energizing the cells. It focuses the attention. I appreciate the silence, the work it takes, the things it brings.
Joop Delahaye is a recently retired healthcare worker, now with time in his life to do some writing. He is grateful to Marlene Cullen and also Lakin Kahn for providing the Zoom setting to explore/free his creative muse.
