Thirty Days of Gratitude, Day 8: The Sounds of Silence

I guess the necessary corollary to my post from yesterday (if you missed it, it’s right here) is that, today, I am thankful for silence. Not just silence regarding political stuff, but just good ol’ quiet.

This week, I am having thirty-minute conferences with each student in my class. I have thirty-six students in my class. (You can see where I’m going with this, right?) Then I get home and have two kids who are definitely not quiet. The email pings. The text message sound dings. The phone rings. (I didn’t mean for that to rhyme, but cool!) Right now, there just seems to be a lot of noise all around.

Normally, I’m ok with talking and noise. Too much of it – as with too much of anything – bothers me, but I’m generally a chatty gal and can handle a lot of talking. But when I have to talk during the whole. entire. day, I begin to lose it a little.

I have breaks throughout these days of conferences – I generally take a fifteen-minute break after every four conferences (i.e., every two hours), and thirty minutes for lunch. During this time, I drink in the silence. I wallow in it. I sit at my desk and stare at the wall and enjoy that there is no noise other than the buzzing of the fluorescent lights. It’s glorious, even if short-lived.

During conference week, once the kids are in bed, I pour a glass of wine and just sit for a bit. No TV, no talking, no nothing. Just silence. It’s a lovely, peaceful break from the cacophony of the day. (P.S. Cacophony is one of my favorite words ever.)

Thanks for stopping by. What are you thankful for today?