Listening to Silence

There is something wonderful about listening to silence.  Right now, in the quiet of 5:00 am, the only things I can hear are a distant clock ticking and the very slight buzzing of my computer's little cooling fan.  I'm sure that these sounds are always there.  But they are usually drowned out by other noises when we and the rest of Lyon usually wake up.  The first morning sounds we typically hear come from the "high-heel lady".   That's name we have given to the early-rising woman in the apartment just above us who must look very fashionable, even though we have never actually seen her.  You can guess where we got her name.  And the daily sounds of living in a city just ramp up from there.

Another source of "silence" is that fact that we don't have a TV, a radio, or a newspaper.  We didn't hear much of the U.S. election coverage this year, didn't watch the Grammys, and didn't even know who was playing in the Super Bowl, let alone watch any of the ads!  On many of our daily walks, this lack of information has been our topic of conversation.   We have decided that this might be a mixed blessing.  On the one hand, we are really out of the loop concerning much of what is going on in the world around us.  On the other hand, we are really out of the loop concerning much of what is going on in the world around us!

The biggest blessing of living outside of the "noise" is that the little things, those that are always there but usually go unnoticed and forgotton, finally get a chance.  Some of them, like ticking clocks or buzzing fans are probably not that critical.  But others are much more important than campaigns or football games.

Gee!  I just noticed that our fridge makes a gurgling-spaceship kind of sound when it kicks on!

On a recent visit to a little village destroyed in World war II.

A quiet spot in one of Lyon's many hidden "miraboules".