{five-minute-friday}

A collaboration of writers. A collage of pieces focused on one weekly prompt. A five-minute challenge to write raw and exposed. Completely unedited. Magnificently honest.

This Week’s Prompt: Learn

It’s my first time.

I set a timer, mute the music, and begin. I try to rack my brain for a story. It feels forced, and so I stop and welcome silence.

It hasn’t escaped me all day, the fact that silence has been unreachable. My oldest boy is with Grandma and Grandpa. My husband looks at me this morning, raising his head from his coffee. The two-year-old sleeps soundly two hours past his usual waking time. The baby is already down for a nap. “My goodness Eryn,” he begins, “Zeke is so loud!”

It’s not meant to be a complaint or insult. We’ll miss his constant chatter by tomorrow. But the house is so….quiet.

All day.

Yet not silent—because those cicadas, they hum that piercing melody all day long, rising and lowering with one another. I hear it loudest as I sit outside watching my boy silently gather together dead blades of grass, piling them into a “house” for his digging truck.

They sing and break silence. Yet I embrace the quiet nonetheless. Sometimes a constant melody, when heard relentlessly day in and day out, actually becomes the background noise of silence.

I am learning. Learning to hear differently. Learning to spot silence where it might not usually be noticed. Learning to seek it amidst constant noise. Learning to recognize the absence of noise, both in my ears and in my heart—to pursue it.