Monday, January 2, 2012

I remember the first night, almost ten years ago that we spent in our house here in the country. The movers were only coming the next day, so we had to sleep on pads on the floor of the bedroom. It was comfortable enough, the house was warm enough, and I was tired enough, but I could not fall asleep. I was perplexed, I was a bit excited but not apprehensive, and unlike some other moves the paperwork and legal side went smoothly yet I was not falling asleep. And then it dawned on me, after over 20 years of living in the constant dull roar of Toronto suburbs, the silence was deafening (not to mention the total darkness)
Of course the country is not always silent. Your ears tell you it is spring with the chatter of red winged black birds and that is followed by the spring peepers and together they make an spring’s eve almost deafening. I will address the sounds of the rest of the year later but the one characteristic of a winter’s eve is silence. It seems the colder it is, and the darker it is, the quieter it is. Once the river freezes the flexing ice will do whale sounds but tonight, even though it is going to dip to minus 22, the river still has lots of open water. So tonight it is quiet. No birds, no people on snowmobiles, no distant traffic, the trains are long gone, thankfully (as rare as they are) no sirens, no chatter, not even the coyotes or wolves are howling.
As the secular recognition of the Christmas Season winds down there are no more Christmas songs on the radio. The tinsel is down in the malls and the Boxing Day sales that started in November are all but wound down. Never mind that churches with wandering Magi have not moved them next to the stable yet; Christmas is over.
But I am sitting in the silence of the country, in front of a blazing fire (which, for nit pickers is not silent) and the Christmas Tree is still up and the white bulbs are singing in full voice. We had a party at our house yesterday (well more of a New Year’s Open House, although New Year’s Levee for the Beagle sounds better) so today, before work starts tomorrow is a day of lazy reflection and a day of silence. With silence I can hear the messages within me that get buried and I have the chance to reflect upon these little voices. I think of Mary and Joseph and their little baby and how frightened they must have been. The heavenly hosts have turned on their wings and are back in heaven, doing whatever heavenly hosts do for eternity. The baby is crying, the baby is hungry, the baby is cold, they certainly have not been given a plan for the future.
I like to think that Joseph went for a walk to get away from everything. I am sure that he had enough faith to leave the baby and Mary alone for a bit. I like to think that he went to the place where all those shepherds had come from and just hung out in the hills for a bit. Bethlehem would not have been that noisy then to start with and by the time he got in the hills, it would have been pretty quiet, except for a bit of wind and the occasional complaining sheep. I think that in the silence, Joseph heard the answers that he needed to hear. I don’t know of course if that happened at all – maybe the whole story is just a dream , but I do know that there is a lot to hear in silence, if one is willing to listen. I am sad that most people fear silence. Are they afraid of the message?

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