Silence is golden

 

I was lying in bed this morning listening. To what? NOTHING. Other than the pond gurgling in the backyard, there was NOTHING. No birds, no traffic, no insects - absolutely NOTHING. It's incredible when you consider that we live in a huge city, and other than noise generated by my own backyard, there wasn't a thing to be heard. 

That was a completely different story from the night before. Police sirens were blaring for a considerable length of time - no idea where they were going. Fireworks -- since when did Thanksgiving become a fireworks holiday? And what boggles my mind is the motorcycles. We live several KM from a major highway, and we do not hear the traffic for the most part. But late at night, you can hear those motorcycles whine for miles away. It's totally crazy!

It's also weird how sound carries. We also live close to a super busy airport, and it's getting more active every day, now that things are opening up more. There are two flight paths near the house, and on some days, depending on the cloud cover, we can't even talk when a plane flies overhead, and other days, you don't even know they are there. Same thing for the trains. There is a train track about 3 KM away, and for the most part, we never hear the trains. But sometimes, late at night or early morning, we can hear the rumbling of the train. 

How close to the airport are we? When we have to pick someone up, we tell them to text us when they land. Then we leave to pick them up. By the time they get off the plane and get their luggage, we have usually arrived! I love it! 

I love the silence. Yes -- I like to listen to audiobooks and the radio, but I also love the silence. I'm not sure which I enjoy more. It's nice to have NOTHING to listen to, nothing for your brain to process, so you can just let your brain wander. OK -- I think I like the silence best!

But here's the thing - there are so many people that need noise. They can't sleep without white noise; they can't function without the TV in the background or some other form of comfort. Is it the feeling of knowing that other humans are close by? OR is it something else? I'm not sure, but I think it has something to do with how you get along with yourself. 

That sounds weird, but I think we sometimes use outside stimuli to make us happy when I believe true happiness comes from within. It's how you look at things -- you know - the half-empty versus half-full thing. I think all scenarios can be looked at from that perspective, and if you are the half-empty kind, you will never be happy. We need to take what we have and embrace it! We only get one shot, and I want to be happy. 

Which is why I was outside playing in the mud puddles yesterday!

Playing in the mud puddles

Yes --- I went for my 5 KM walk with the girls in the rain, and on one walk, I needed my rain jacket, which desperately needs new waterproofing. So when I got home, I switched to an umbrella for the second walk. But both times, I wore my red rain boots, and I got to jump in the puddles of water. It was great! Lexi and Murphy were totally unimpressed, but that's OK. 

I also learned something else yesterday -- Murphy is strong! I had someone stop by the house to pick up something, and Murphy is curious and NEEDS to say hello to everyone. I would prefer that she didn't, and so at one point, as she came to the front door with her ball in her mouth, I stuck out my leg, and she ran into it with her ball in her mouth. OUCH!! That hurt. 

And look what happened. 

A lump on the leg

I got this massive lump and bruise on my leg, and it was instantaneous. Silly girl and silly Mom for sticking her leg out, but who would have thought she wouldn't stop. So I'm standing at the door trying to pretend nothing happened when my leg was throbbing like mad. 

But how can you get mad at this face? 

Murphy

Oh yes, with all the rain, we have mud in the backyard and while she was probably digging - look at those feet, she was definitely snuffling at something! She is definitely of the mindset that no one will yell at me if I look super cute! You have to love Murphy! 

So here's the other thing about the half-full and half-empty scenarios. Yesterday, I made a big boo-boo on one of my quilts. I had to cut off some applique because I didn't measure correctly. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!  It took me all of 30 seconds to get over it. I'm past the point of getting upset if I make a mistake. Yes - it might look a bit funny, but it doesn't really, and I bet if I didn't tell you, it would take some time for you to see what happened. 

I'll show you tomorrow, but for heaven's sake - this is a quilt. It is NOT life-threatening surgery or something like that. Life is way too short to worry about a small thing like a lopped-off piece of applique. Thank goodness the quilt is whimsical!

I managed to get another customer quilt done. They all seem to be GIANT quilts these days. That one took a significant part of the day and into the evening, and now I have a few quilts to trim. Plus, another one on the long arm which is a bit smaller, so that's good. I need to get caught up! 

Customer quilt

More paperwork got done, and I get to start all over for the month, although I'm not entirely done for last month. Because of the Zoom classes, I've been doing a LOT of very detailed homework assignments. I have to make a presentation for the class and then the assignment document afterward. I have to rethink that because it's taking way too much of my time to keep up. I might just add a few words to the presentation and forward that. The pictures are already loaded, so why bother to do it twice? Yep -- I need to work smarter, not faster! And I don't get paid to do all that extra work. 

It is Earthcache Day weekend in the geocaching world. There was one near my MIL physio, which is crazy because it's right across the street from where we used to live. Well, one street over. I took a little walk while I was waiting for her. I collected the information necessary to log the cache and did that last night. The Earthcaches are very interesting as they lead you to various areas to learn how things function in the world. This time, it was about one of the wetlands, what type of plants live there, what the wetlands do for the city, invasive species, etc. I might do another one today - if it isn't raining. 

I finished The Midnight Library, and it was a super book. Highly recommend it - it really is all about life! I've started another one -- another memoir of someone who walked the Pacific Crest Trail. It's a bit all over the place, but I'll listen to it while I'm working. I had set a goal of reading 75 books this year - fiction and non-fiction. I'm at 44. Am I upset? Not one bit - a goal is a goal, but that doesn't mean you have to achieve it. And this year, I just needed some silence in my life. Our brains need some downtime to regenerate, and I really use that quiet time to contemplate life, solve problems, and just LIVE with myself. I don't need to be entertained 100% of the time. 

That issue of being entertained 100% of the time is a HUGE issue with society today. We need instant gratification; we need everything now; we need to see how many online friends we have and how many likes we got for a post. We have lost the ability to entertain ourselves. (OK -- I'm generalizing again), but why do we constantly need to be doing things? Or doing more than one thing at a time? We don't. A slow and steady life, but one that we thoroughly enjoy, is better than one where we rushed through everything and didn't really enjoy the process. 

Remember the homeless man I've mentioned? Well, I think he is homeless. I have seen him from time to time this summer. He uses the food cabinet outside one of the local churches. It has a sign on it - "leave what you can take what you need." I saw him the other day with a huge red sore on his nose; his hair is long and unkempt - he's lost his hat along the way. His clothes change - it's almost as if he wears them until they wear out and then gets new ones. But the constant in his life is that notebook he carries in his hand. I wonder what's in it? It looks like it's filled with writing or small notes, and it's thick. I've never seen him without it! 

Anyway - enough of that philosophy for the day! It's still very quiet at my house. The only thing I can hear is the hum of the computer screen, or maybe that's the computer. A soft, gentle hum that drives me crazy, but I need it to type! 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!