The Sound of Silence

Do you live with too much noise? One thing I love about my time up north is the wonderful silence. Sometimes I can hear fish jumping in the harbour everything is so still and silent. And I’m becoming a bit of an expert on bird song, learning to identify each bird species as it sings. The Department of Conservation has a great website where you can play native bird song, which helps you identify what you are hearing. Click here to see it.
Then I come back to the city and it’s all on. We live in medium density housing next to apartments and across from a primary school so there’s always something going on whether it’s neighbours having parties, neighbours watching the footie – roll on World Cup! – or police sirens and the good old school bell. And then there’s the noise inside our homes, loud appliances, dog’s barking ( usually ours) and music.
As I wrote in my book Domestic Goddess on a Budget it’s really important to get one hour a day on your own.
“Find a quiet place and tell your family to leave you alone for an hour, and mean it. Lock the door if you have to. Go and use a friend’s house if you need to. Reassure your husband you are not going mad. Get a candle, and make it a really nice one. Sit down and calmly light the candle. Take a deep breath and stare at it. What you are doing is a very focusing ritual and something I urge all women to do on a regular basis.”
It’s amazing what happens when you simply sit and stare at a candle in my experience.
But increasingly I think it’s hard to find a quiet place to do it. This article has some really good advice for working to keep things a little quieter in the home. I particularly liked the ideas of using trees as a sound barrier and lining the cavity which holds your dishwasher.