Quietude goes beyond the mere lack of sound.
Raising a child has shown me how deeply our environment influences our development. The decision to play music in the home, the amount of time we spend outside as a family, the choice between a wooden or plastic toothbrush—these seemingly minor details carry greater weight when they shape the world a young child experiences and absorbs during her earliest years.
Naturally, as a first-time mother, I can sometimes take things too far, but the more I research, the more convinced I become that our surroundings play a key role in how a child understands her place in the larger scheme of existence. Lately, I have been reflecting on the part that quietness plays in that environment.
Our household recently relocated from an urban area to the countryside, and we are breathing a collective sigh of relief. In the city, buses constantly roared past, a television in the neighboring building murmured and erupted with laughter throughout the day, and there was always some appliance—a lawnmower, a miter saw, a nail gun—humming and grinding in the background. I grew so accustomed to the racket that I failed to notice its impact on us.
My family's transition to a calmer lifestyle, though somewhat unfamiliar at first, ultimately revealed the benefits of stillness.
Quietude goes beyond the mere lack of sound. It is not simply the state of silence when the TV is off and the phone volume is lowered. Stillness is too profound to be defined solely by what is missing. It represents something affirmative: a particular richness that engages the entire person and approaches the realm of tranquility.
What might initially appear empty to grown-ups can provide space for wonder, for gaining deeper insight into ourselves and others, and for perceiving things more clearly than before. We might uncover unresolved conflicts or aspirations and dreams we have set aside. We might be better equipped to evaluate our choices before taking action—or, like me, recognize that much of what I intend to say does not require utterance.
Reports and data indicate that more people are actively seeking quiet these days. This trend likely corresponds to the growth of technology, industrialization, and social media.
Indeed, our society could benefit from greater stillness. However, one does not have to relocate, as we did, to attain it.
On a practical level, seeking quiet begins by offering ourselves external stillness: turning off phones, podcasts, music, or television. It means rising early for a moment of calm, engaging in the ritual of preparing a meal, paying attention to the sights, scents, and sounds of nature, and choosing to listen to a friend a bit longer before offering advice. During my school years, some teachers would request several minutes of silence before class began. Such pauses before activities allow us to breathe, gather our thoughts, and immerse ourselves more fully in what follows.
Quieting the internal noise—the thoughts, ideas, and inner voices that chatter and murmur within us throughout life—is more challenging, yet it is worthwhile. I am still mastering the practice of stillness, but when I opt to silence the surrounding racket, I can hear the birds chirping outside, the insect chorus on summer nights, or our daughter's sweet voice singing and babbling upstairs. Stillness opens us to a richer encounter with the human and the immediate, reminding us that the ordinary is extraordinary.
