Haiku 2023–348

embracing silence

sorting out what’s inside me

rather than add new

— —

Any regular reader of my reading knows that I spend at least 100 minutes in the car commuting every work day. While I’m pleased to report at least twenty minutes of that commute almost every day is spent talking to my best friend (also known as my wife), the rest of the time is just me and whatever is going on in and around the car.

I’ve tried all kinds of things to fill the time: NPR, podcasts, commercial radio, work calls, dharma talks, even listening to police dispatchers and air traffic controllers from all over the world (a bit of a busman’s holiday, that last one). I recently added something new to that list…

Silence.

It happened almost accidentally. I was driving down the street when I suddenly realized that I had no idea what the person I was listening to was saying. Why? Because I was lost in my inner monologue. I reached up and turned off the radio and just kept listening to what my inner voice had to say. While the topic of the mental puzzle I sorted out is lost to the vagaries of time, the feeling that I can be a good traveling companion for myself remains.

Silence is now a regular part of my routine. At least once a day, I reach up and power off the radio and ponder something I just heard or sort out a problem I’m dealing with or just plain appreciate the scenery as it rolls by. I find it helps tremendously with something I’m working towards in life — being present.