Finding Beauty in the Noise
Silence and stillness aren’t mutually exclusive
Our kids woke up in the wee hours of the morning. They came running into our room. One of them had started crying due to a nightmare and the other one heard it. After the obligatory consoling, reassuring and re-tucking in that we’ve lived through so many times, my wife and I plopped back into our bed and tried to doze off. Then I heard a distant noise that you aren’t supposed to hear in the middle of the night: a bird chirping.
At this point I realized it was close to sunrise, but still desperately craving that last bit of sleep before the kids bolted into our room again. Every inch of my body wanted to fall asleep immediately. Except I couldn’t.
The bird’s call increased in intensity and started to drive me crazy. It felt like the only thing standing between me and blissful rest. I couldn’t escape it. That’s when I had an idea. What if I actually devoted all of my attention to the sounds coming from this bird? The unique change in pitch, the unpredictable rhythm, the soothing melody. No less than a minute later, I found myself mesmerized by the song and drifting back to sleep.
Looking back on it, I had already decided in my mind to be annoyed with the bird. I defaulted to the idea that I couldn’t sleep because of this auditory distraction…
