Footprint December 2007

Silence is the most powerful scream

Noise is all around us. We are bombarded with sounds of traffic, voices, machines and even our own thoughts. The world’s noise has a way of deflecting us from the deeper realities of life. It keeps us preoccupied with the superficial at the expense of the meaningful. To be able to touch souls we need silence. Solitude seeks to silence a noisy world. The more time we spend in solitude and silence, the more we get done in our periods of activity. If we only spend time in activity, we’re getting very little done.Silence heals. Silence gives many messages. When used right, silence communicates trust. It can shed light or place a veil of darkness on a conversation.

It's only silence that lends words life. Being able to use the sound of silence is one of the greatest conversational arts. Solitude and silence teaches us to love people for what they are, not for what they say. Silence can also show that we have great integrity and will not be brought into conversations that could be harmful. Dead silence can cause a conversation to feel heavy, as the speaker may not know if they were heard or understood, and the cruellest lies can be told in silence. The art of silence and the art of communication are to be learned. Life is a fine balance of releasing the right words in the right order at the right time, and deciding which words are truly better left unsaid. Sometimes we need to release the words while they still hold their meaning, before they change in silence. And sometimes we just need to stay quiet in the now and listen. The now never asks what is coming next.

Words can change the world. They can torture, heal, encourage, humiliate, inspire, sadden, give joy and they can forever change our lives. The power of the spoken word is mighty but the power of silence can be mightier still. We have to choose carefully what we say, why we say it and when the best time is saying it. It is as important to cultivate our word power as it is to cultivate our silence power. And as Martin Luther King once said: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live”.