A Long Forty Days of Silence

A couple of years ago I decided to observe Lent by turning off the car radio. It wasn't easy. It was a long forty days of silence. I missed the entertainment, the music, the distraction, the weather, and even hearing the traffic reports.

There were days I would get in the car after work and desperately want to listen to the radio for the long drive home. Yet I persisted. I found this became a time to sit in silence, or to sing, or sometimes even pray aloud. The car became a different space, and it seemed as if time passed in a different way. Without hearing news stories of events that took place recently, I was stuck in the present forced to pay more attention to my own mind, the cars around me and the road I was travelling.

I was alone desperately trying to remember that we are never truly alone.