(picture by Larry Thompson, 2007-2010,from www.discoverlife.org)
The windows at my house are open a lot nowadays. I enjoy listening for the distinct and beautiful low "woo whoo" of the mourning dove. I cannot recognize any other bird call. To hear the birds, the TV and music have to be turned off. The inner clatter of worries have to be shushed. So much of that stems from worry and not trusting in the One created all the birds and stars and calls each of them by name. Some days I shush the inner clatter and turn off all other sounds but nature. This restores my soul.
In his article "Background Noise," Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. talks about how unsettling silence is in our culture. We insist on taking music to the beach with us. He gives the example of the music between innings at ball games becoming louder. We push out the bird noises because we are uncomfortable with silence. He states (rightly, I think) that silence is the natural context of our lives. "According to Genesis, God breaks the cosmic silence with a creative word, but he does this only during the days. At nightfall and on the Sabbath, God falls silent. Correspondingly, there is for us, the creatures of God, a natural rhythm not only of work and rest, but also of sound and silence."
He goes on to say: "Noisy souls, like boom boxes, drown out the cries of the gulls. It is the quiet soul that can receive the words, the tones, the timbre of another. A stilled soul can listen even to the silence of another." Having been written in 1995, it says "boom box" where today, perhaps i pod or cell phone would be today's equivalent. Yet, the truth remains, the world gets louder and louder. There are more images and decibles shoved at us all the time. Are we even able to see how this can cause "sensory-overload" and "soul-overload?"
Today, I didn't even play i-tunes. I didn't listen to the radio or cds. I enjoyed the music that God provided through the chirping birds and the fish jumping in the lake. Basil, the sweetest dog in the world, also spoke to me. She groans very loudly when she lays down. The other sounds I heard were leaves dropping from trees, the wind blowing the trees, the click of keys on the keyboard, and my own breathing. All of these sounds are gifts like grace.
"To be a faithful creature of God is to learn something of God's rhythm of silence and sound and silence, to respect and trust it, and then to imitate God by speaking and listening from the context that is as old as the world."
WOO WHOO! Can you hear the mourning doves?
