I no longer enjoy complete silence. Tinnitus reigns in my skull. It casts its high-pitched buzz over whatever may or may not pass through the ears.
Thankfully, that buzz is to the tune of a much-loved sound of late summer: the pulse of the northern cicada. When all else has stilled, I redirect my attention from the buzz to that twinge of angst associated with August's arrival: "Its time for school." The humm of the Cicadas wafted through the classroom windows as I put up posters, cleaned chalkboards, crafted seating charts, and set up workstations.
While the activity has changed since 2016, the spark of memory continues; enough so the feeling, though ever so slowly losing its grip, still casts its shiver and invigorates the moment.
At least I can entwine cicadas with the tinnitus and get through the days.
But silence in principle still takes conscious effort to encounter. Releasing myself of the hooks from rods & reels of to-do lists, ideating, urgent tyrannies.
Then when I do, it isn't long before the LORD shows up - in song, in verse, in Scripture. Then through an enveloping spirit of Peace.
And somehow, for those captivating moments in time, I don't hear the cicadas anymore.
I'm grateful to Eva Marie Everson and her work, The Third Path: Finding Intimacy with God on the Path of Questioning for encouraging a deeper look into the paths of closeness with the Lord.
