5 Minutes of Silence

Today I took up the Writer's Workshop challenge to "Listen to the sounds in your house for 5-10 minutes.  Write about what you hear."

It's not very often that I sit quietly and just listen.  Usually when I'm sitting quietly I'm thinking about things to do, or reading, or just about to fall asleep.  Not really listening.

So this morning I did just that.  I really listened.


This is what I heard:

• Pages of a book turning.  My daughter is home sick today.  She's curled up in the chair next to me, very quietly reading.

• My dog bouncing down the carpeted steps.  She doesn't walk down, she hops.  "Bounce, bounce, bounce."

• Our rabbit moving around in his cage, settling in for a nap.

• Birds outside, although they sound distant because all the windows are closed.  It's cold this morning.

• My breath.  I can hear myself breathing.

• The hum of my computer.

• The refrigerator fan clicking on and buzzing.

• My dog licking her mouth.  It sounds very juicy.

• "Lily!" My daughter telling the dog to stop licking.

• A truck on the distant highway.

• A sneeze from my daughter.  One from me too.  We're both sick.

• A single dog bark down the street.

• "Whose knife it it really?"  My daughter asks.  We're both reading The Game of Thrones.

• Deep sounds of the Seminary bell ringing high in its bell tower.  It must be 11:00 am, although my computer says 10:55.  Which one is off by 5 minutes?  My computer or the bell?


My five minutes of listening is over.  But even as I write this list, I notice more sounds.  Birds, a car, my dog's sleep-breathing, my typing, more book pages turning, another dog bark in the distance.

Five minutes of silence isn't really silent at all.

Try it.

Just listen.