Silence

Is there ever silence? Listen ... what do we hear when we think there is silence? We hear the world passing through the construct of time.

I step into the night ... peepers, coyotes, owls ... rustling leaves on limb and ground ... tiny, unidentified whispers in the shadows ... something falls to earth ... a quiet 'woof!' from one of the dogs as he stares intensely into the darkness ...

So many sounds in the so-called silence. But I couldn't have heard them if I had been speaking, taking up space with unnecessary words.