The Silence Almost Hurts my Ears!
It's such a quiet location I can almost hear the sun shining and my cats thinking.
✒️I arrived back at my UK home a few weeks ago. No one was at home, but 🐈 the cats were delighted to see me and asked to be fed immediately.
It was sunny, 🌡️warm and still, and I was happy to sit in the sun rather than hide from it. My other tropical home was 46c yesterday when I left, and too uncomfortable to sit out.
I brewed myself a cup of tea and sat out on the decking, relaxing and unwind from my ✈️long trip; it was quite wonderful. I soon noticed something was missing and conspicuous by its absence. It was the lack of noise!
It was so noticeable!
I’m not complaining, I just found it surprising that I hadn’t noticed this before. Here is a very private place where I heard very little noise, nor would I speak to anyone unless I left the house to go shopping?
My Philippine home is a different experience completely. It’s a very friendly and social place, and there is almost constant noise, or a background sound. In the daytime, I constantly hear someone calling my name, or knocking on my door.
I live right next to the beach and can nearly always hear the ocean. It’s especially noticeable at night as the waves gently lap onto the shore and rolling up the beach. When the sea is angry, I hear it smashing aggressively over the rocks.
It sings me to sleep and is my constant companion.
🌞When the sun comes up, I hear the children playing and having fun swimming. I’m aware of the Visayan chatter, friendly arguments and heated debates of my neighbours. They bicker like a group of magpies fighting over a scrap of food. Sometimes I hear radio music, or someone 🎵 singing karaoke.
I also hear the bark of 🐕dogs alerting us that someone new and unfamiliar has arrived. 🐓Fighting cockerels crow constantly through the day looking for challengers, and letting everyone know “hey, I’m here, and I’m dangerous!” They constantly crow, even when it’s dark, except in the middle, and darkest point of the night when they also have to sleep.
I hear the fishermen chatting excitedly as they fuel their boats, or land their catch. I hear the locals coming to help them carry their boats out of the water and buy and haggle over their fish.
I hear those with a death wish arriving in the village on fast motorbikes at breakneck speeds. They scream past in a hurry to meet their maker, and they won’t have to wait long driving like that.
There is always a wonderful cacophony of background sounds.
It’s a unique blended Philippine sound.
My UK home is such a contrast.
I look out on a very private garden, or a semi-deserted sandy beach. Here, apart from the wind or rain falling on my roof, I rarely hear any sound at all.
Occasionally, a ✈️plane flies over, Or the village 🔔church bells ring, other than that, it’s totally silent. This is a very different, more reserved community.
I spend most of my time alone in both homes. Solitude is something I enjoy, although I love the contrast of both my homes.
I am so very fortunate!
As always, I’d love to hear your comments, thoughts and questions. If you would share this with your family, friends and acquaintances, I would be very grateful. Just use the below button.
If you have enjoyed this article and would like to ☕ buy me a coffee?