The sound of silence
The morning scramble was over. I’d taken kids to school, given Patch his first-day-of-kindergarten send off, and returned home. I walked into the house…and it was quiet. No thumping, no yelling, no video game sounds or music, not even the quiet clack of lego bricks. It is amazing how loud silence can be. I frequently crave silence, but in the silence of this morning I was able to see how too much of it would be as oppressive as too much noise. This morning’s silence did not last very long, only until 10:45. I used the time to do accounting an business tasks so that by the time Patch came home I could spend time with him.
I sat with Patch and just listened to his chatter for about 45 minutes. His thoughts about kindergarten were not organized. He just said things as they occurred to him. So I learned random rules, and that there was a kid in his kindergarten class who had the same name as a different kid who’d been in his preschool class. His thoughts wandered all over as he was processing the experiences and trying to internalize the rules. I’d planned to work on reading with him, but realized that his head was already full of new things. He needed to assimilate, not learn more. He ran out of kindergarten thoughts and cookie at about the same time. Then he ran off to play.
Tomorrow will bring with it more silence. I’m glad. I need some silence in my days. The summer had none and I frequently wanted to just flee the house. Some people honestly lament when their little ones go off to school. I’m happy to see them go, because the space of silence allows me to be happy to welcome them back.