Shhhhhh. Can you listen?

I ask for a silence and still, in the empty quiet of this room, I hear it.

I hear the cars making their fast fast way to their destination, because there is a place to be and a time to be there but now it’s late late late and we should’ve been there already.

I hear a plane make a sonic blast of sound as it flies over head, because humans have mastered the sky but my headphones are more important to drown out all the people talking and babies crying and when is the featured movie going start and it better be good,

I hear police sirens wailing their despondent cry, because despite all the good the world has to offer there is also bad that is never happy unless others are unhappy and now it’s too late for the desperation that is too deep and dark to feel my hope for a future where the people who hurt are comforted and embraced not rejected,

I hear the ambulance screeching its piercing wail, because a red sea of pain is released every day and people who never believed in anything start praying and people who believed stop praying because what kind of God lets bad things happen to good people,

I hear my neighbors shouting and fighting again, because sometimes people become blind to one another and start to lose the spark that once made it interesting and worth it but never mind the child hiding under the bed with hands held tightly over little ears to stop hearing the ugly things said by the two people most precious to them in the whole wide world,

I hear the A/C turn on in the house, because imagine the horror of living without cold air in this hot summer heat and my temporary relief is more important than the hours my parents spent on their feet to run it at 74 degrees because anything less is too cold and anything higher is too hot and if Goldilocks found perfection why can’t I,

I hear the water move through the pipes in the bathroom, because having a functioning toilet and a shower is a basic human necessity and to do without either is to live a life of unimaginable terror and it sucks for people who don’t have it but if I want to leave the faucet running or spend ten more minutes in the shower I should be able to because water keeps running here anyway,

And in this room,

In this loud quiet,

I hear my own breathing, and the sighs and intakes of breath are the example of the love I should give and receive.

I hear my own heartbeat, and in the silence between each    beat     beat      beat       is a reminder that one day the silence will be forever, so I better start living.