After months of noise and chaos, we come into this season of quietude. Everything seems to halt: work is stopped and some activities are put on hold. Why, even entertainment is at a standstill! Without the cacophony of noise, we get to hear the brushing of the breeze on the leaves, the chirping of the birds flying by. We start to hear ourselves.
Silence helps us listen to ourselves. It offers us a time to think about the things that we have busied ourselves with, the pursuits that had kept us occupied, the tasks that we have taken on and considered to be important. It keeps us attuned to our inner selves, which enables us to identify the most worthwhile things that we ought to pursue. This is important since we need to redirect our lives to doing things that will help us become better people.
Silence, then, helps us become more reflective and reflexive. We listen well to our innermost thoughts and aspirations. In doing so, we become more open-minded and flexible, allowing ourselves to embrace change and the constant challenge that comes with differing perspectives in the world around us.
It keeps us grounded. Since we can listen to ourselves more, we get to see our realities. We see our imperfections and inconsistencies. But instead of dismissing them, we can bravely confront our limitations amid the obvious diversity and differences. These do not drown our own voices and perspectives. Rather, we are made aware of our own position vis-à-vis these realities.
We are brought to an awareness of our space in the immersive nature of life and the position that we need to take in it. This leads us to see ourselves in the bigger spectrum of society, and helps us become more critical of things that hinder social engagement — i.e., discrimination, bigotry, intolerance. Immersed in this social arena, we see areas and opportunities for active social participation.
Listening to ourselves allows for agency and criticality. Listening to ourselves grounds us in the realities of social life. We see avenues for engagement, participation and collaboration. In participating, we are made aware of the significance of social action. Instead of silence bringing us away from the world into our own little corners of comfort, through it we get to hear more clearly the clamors of the world for social reforms to end its many ills — i.e., poverty, injustice, inequality. It calls for us to provide solutions through solid and concrete actions.
This helps us in making critical judgments to guide our decision-making, which will eventually help us take a position in addressing these social concerns. Rather than keeping us to ourselves, it helps us hear the chaos more distinctly, thereby allowing us to take a position and answer the call to action.
This quietude is not only a call for silence. It is a call for meaningful silence — one that touches deeply on our innermost selves, to help us reframe and redirect ourselves toward more worthwhile pursuits and endeavors. It is one that moves us to see deeply our realities, so that we are redirected to our place in the social arena. It allows space for us to eventually make critical decisions and enables us to tap into our agency to answer the call to action.
This season of quietude is not only one of calmness. It is one of hearing more clearly — so we can reframe, redirect and reform.
