Today I was able to get out a bit earlier for my walk with the dog and the silence was astounding.

The fog creates a nice blanket over the Bay Area when it moves in and it just sits on any sound. Trucks and cars are quieter, the air is still and any other noise has a quiet quality to it. You can still hear sounds, but it’s quiet, almost calm.

There were birds occasionally singing, but it was a very muted sound. It was almost like a salve on a painful sore. Sometimes silence or quietness is very much a balm for the business of daily life, but you can only benefit from it in a quiet state.

My cancer diagnosis and the resulting time to heal has reinforced the importance of quietness. Perhaps it’s one of the things you can only learn after living life.