Peace and quiet.

 It is said that silence is golden. I remember the exquisite silence of the Karoo, in South Africa, when far off the road, the silence is a 'presence', you can taste it when that background noise to our everyday life falls away, not even the sound of birds to break the pristine silence.

It's funny how we go through life carrying with us, yet hardly realising, this background noise of things and events happening around us.
Who hasn't been seduced by the rhythmic crash of waves working to the mechanism of tides. The sound of a water fountain or a stream is meant to be cathartic as we find, in its delicate pattern some sort of solace.
But when I talk of silence I am not talking of that sort of silence or even the silence and pleasure of being in the Dales and hearing a curlew call as you stride out up a path.
I'm talking of the silence within a house where the outside influences have been muted.

 Usually the early cup of tea is accompanied by switching on the radio to find out what is happening in the world at large. Maybe the TV is on, maybe the HiFi plays a piece of music, what ever, there is man made sound to accompany your arrival from the state of sleep. 

But what if you enjoy the silence and the ability it brings to allow your mind to pick its own path through each minute and each hour with 'no distraction'. Letting your thoughts mature into a relaxed uncluttered review of the day. A day without priorities, a day without judgement, a day without measurement, a selfish day hanging out with your best friend - yourself !!