White Silence

Will we have to separate ourselves completely from the news of our world to live in the white light of silence? Or is it up to us to ignore the darkness and focus our light to penetrate it?

An early spring snowstorm weighs heavy on evergreens. Photo by Cathleen Falsani.

It’s as still as glass this afternoon.

The snow is falling outside my office windows signaling this year’s heavy winter coat will cover the Flathead Valley into early spring. The forest around our house looks like it’s covered in whipped cream, snow weighing down the branches on ancient fir trees and hemlocks, piling deep on the roof gables and the deck overlooking the backyard.

We are buried in white silence.

I’ve noticed that snow quiets things down. Maybe the moisture absorbs sounds that I usually hear when I’m walking my dog up the road past the few houses along the way. Occasionally, a car breaks the quiet as it picks its way cautiously up the hills and around the curves heading upward toward to end of the road.

I wonder if they feel as I do driving up into these woods. Do they sense that that they are being lifted magically above the winter traffic on the road below heading for Big Mountain. Do they feel that they are climbing to a tranquil hideaway?

Are the skiers riding the lift lines as hungry as I am for the peaceful space at the top of the mountain? As they look down on those challenging white slopes, do they yearn for the singular sound of their skis carving the snow and hearing only that swoosh and nothing more? Maybe the wind cutting through the pines that rim the runs are welcome background music as their bodies swaying from side to side, down, down, down.

The other skiers moving toward them as they reach the bottom must feel like Interlopers in the silence…unwelcome visitors in their private space breaking the silence with their greetings.

What if we could create white silence around us by choice no matter where we are? Surrounded in a bubble of peace in the midst of hostile conversations, angry opinions, and raging voices blasting at us from the media. Could we automatically shut it off, remain separate, and focus on each moment…. on the taste of an ice cream cone, on the smell of hot chicken soup, on the coziness of climbing under the covers into a warm bed and feeling the peace of exhaustion.

What if white silence could quiet all the unwanted and upsetting noise around us? What if I could carry it around with me? I’d give it as a gift to everyone I meet. Then all of us could isolate ourselves from the gruff talk about politics, the harsh opinions, and arrogance of having to be right and the fear of being wrong. White silence lives in the safety of friendship and love. I want to feel its energy in public places when we greet each other with the warmth of good neighbors.

Will we have to separate ourselves completely from the news of our world to live in the white light of silence? Or is it up to us to ignore the darkness and focus our light to penetrate and dissipate the power of darkness? Can our light push through the dark energy that seems to overcome us? We can’t deny its power. It is said that denial of the truth empowers darkness and that the basis of all darkness is denial of its existence.

We who have lived long enough to have seen darkness try to take over the world. We have witnessed holocaust after holocaust and have been unable to stop the destruction. Now we are faced with it growing in our midst destroying the vision of a free, sane and safe society. Instead of bringing our light to the world, we are withdrawing behind our borders, fearing our neighbors, suspicious of their motives and unable to listen or hear one another.

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”

— Rumi