Noise Pollution

For the first time in a long time my office door is closed today. There is a rush of students to re-register, mostly our 150 Botswana students. In many African cultures it's rude to talk so softly that the surrounding folk can't hear what you say - and this is being implemented in a BIG way today right outside my office! :) So much so that I honestly can't even hear my phone ring, which is why my door is closed today, with a sign saying "Please Come In - Door Closed for Serenity Maintenance" attached.

Fred had a few good things to say recently about noise pollution. Most times we don't even notice the lack of silence around us.

Yesterday my son and I finally made it to the mall, and ate at our favourite restaurant which is open-plan to the mall hallways. There weren't a lot of people around, one could call it a "quiet day". And yet, unblocking my ears to their trained ignoring of sounds, it was actually pretty noisy. Besides the music in the restaurant, there was additional music and announcements over the mall speakers, the sounds of people and trolleys passing, a car display being re-arranged by a skilled driver in a very small space, planes passing overhead, doors closing, security systems beeping. Not a silent patch to be found. And yet we didn't really notice it until we tried.

A while ago I read of the death of stillness. How even out in the middle of nowhere there's no real quiet. You're likely to hear a passing high-altitude jet, or the neighbour a few valleys down cutting their grass. Unless you're in the Australian Outback at night, which is apparently a VERY quiet place.

On Sabbath I sat and listened to the many, many bird voices that often go unnoticed. The sound of a lizard scurrying away into the bushes. A mouse chewing on a large piece of birdfood. Dogs barking far out of sight. Hymns from three different churches on campus as they progressed through their services.

It's very hard to find quiet. I'm not sure many of us actually know what total silence is like. We'd get really uncomfortable if it suddenly happened to us. And yet solitude and silence are important parts of our spiritual growth as we learn to listen to God's still, small voice - so often drowned out by a myriad others.

Often we try to overlay unpleasant noise with more noise - for instance, I may stick on a classical CD to override the neighbour's lawnmower. But that isn't really a solution. It just adds to the traffic-jam in my head.

Although true quiet is hard to find, nature-filled quiet is something we should indulge in more. No man-made noise, just the sounds of the world God created for our joy. The wind in the trees, waves shushing on the shore, birdsong or the rustle of long grass. Many of us have learnt that there's nothing as stress-releasing, as freeing and relaxing, as being out in nature, undisturbed by jarring human noises. Not only relaxing - it's likely to turn our hearts more readily to our Creator, to get onto the same wavelength as Him, to tune in to that still small voice.

That's what I'm longing for today, in the midst of this sea of unrelenting noise.