Would you like silence with that

Silence
the stillness of it all
when is the last time many of us had silence
or stillness


the vicinity of others or their sounds evade our inner sanctum

i was recently on twitter and there were some people discussing how they want to go back into reading
which made me think they are reading
but what they were really implying
about reading
still puzzled me

there was nothing stopping them
having an ebook open then or just switching designated
twitter time for reading time

the business of people
people are busy or think they are
but the fact is no body is as busy
as they think they are
they just have either not managed their moments
to optimum efficiency
or have very different priorities

so it can come down to priority management
of which we are all guilty of

for if we briefly dip into the concept of being busy
what counts as busy
the first things people say is work
well that is only true of some people
so the unemployed
the student from university down to
emeritus
have amply time
but back to those who work


it can be broken down further into what kind of work
from transport work
retail work
or
office work
the 9 to 5
 where some people are famed for having enough
 time on their hands
to search face book
and send chain emails


i used to work in a coffee shop when the silence or stillness dawned on me
and it is the reaction to the stillness which defines you
it did help that i was doing a philosophy degree

but stillness
is something we have to re imagine
re define
re live
for some the stillness is only here
the remote
or that one place
removed from the self
but we must adapt to our surroundings



for even in this concrete jungle their avenues of escape
of seclusion
and refuge
and if not we can create them


We make time
and these are the scenes of our new stillness
not just the sides of mountaintops
or the visit to the country side
but the journeys
the trains
the buses
the platforms
the walking to get groceries
the possibilities
are endless

for i stumbled onto it when i began an early working job
i had all this free time
and at first you play games
but after you realise your battery does not hold up so well

and it hit me that using this time
the journey
i could use it constructively
and even use it to see how fast i finished
books
that it even
jumped into break time
and my toilet time