THE PENNY PUB
Keeping My Silence
Embracing the vacuum in my life
We do not realize the importance of ‘things’ in our lives unless we become aware of them. In my case, I embrace my silence! The Penny Pub prompt gave me a chance to recount my thoughts on embracing the silence in my life and reflecting upon it.
It is befitting that I am writing this piece in the early hours of the morning in Ramadan. I am not particularly religious, but I like fasting in Ramadan — it allows me to reflect and contemplate during silent hours from 3 to 5 A.M. I have always had silence in my life, it is just that I truly appreciate its value now.
My teenage years were spent in a remote rural setting. I walked about a mile each day to catch a school bus. Walking alone during the early hours in a village was my first introduction to silence. Each step was accompanied by a thought and each gaze gave me a different perspective on familiar settings.
The village nights were quiet — people usually headed off to bed around 6 P.M. I would read and stay awake late at night — the silence only interrupted by the sound of crickets or an occasional hoot of an owl.
The silence stimulated my creativity as I fantasized about eighteenth-century Europe when immersed in reading classics by Dickens, Hemingway, Tolstoy, Robert L. Stevenson, and Charlotte Bronte to name a few. My initial interest in writing developed during those long and silent nights.
My career as a seafarer gave me a chance to truly embrace and reconnect with silence. My favorite time of standing watch was from midnight till four o’clock in the morning. You realize what silence and vacuum mean when you literally stare into the abyss.
Imagine you are standing on a small platform sailing across a large ocean. At night, you realize that the ocean is there — you feel its presence but cannot see it. It’s like truth — I know it is there — I just don’t know what it is yet. All you can hear is the silent hum of engines or the discrete sound of waves gently brushing the ship’s hull.
Three years ago, an event triggered me to realize how much I missed having silence in my life. We were moving out of a house we had lived in for ten years. My wife and I realized how much we had accumulated as we surveyed the two piles we had created.
The first pile was a collection of fifteen tidy storage boxes, the second one was quite a sight! Our old clothes, toys, travel memorabilia, and our old furniture. Well, you get the picture! That day we committed to de-cluttering and owning less, which led me to a journey towards minimalism.
Living in a de-cluttered environment has enabled me to de-clutter my mind as well. This has created the much-needed vacuum and silence in my life again. Under this vacuum, I have been able to rekindle my passion for reading and writing.
Even now, most of my reading and writing are done at night during silent hours. My creativity cannot handle the chaos and distractions that the day brings.
I am never letting go of it. I am keeping my silence!
I enjoyed reading Henry India Holden💖’s response to the Penny10 Prompt.
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