Without Words

Some of the most important experiences need silence more than description.

This is something I’ve had to learn slowly. I’m an expressive, verbally processing person. I want to talk about everything.

This is beneficial most of the time. I’m good at teasing out of myself and others feelings, beliefs, and fears that need to be surfaced and dealt with.

But parts of reality are beyond words. The effort to verbalize them takes something away, prematurely stops processes at work.

A related phenomena: when I put down bullets or an outline for something I want to write, it decreases the odds I’ll actually write it. The act of jotting down the ideas is a release valve. It offloads the ideas and ends the beneficial discomfort they cause. It pins them to a future date, and present tension is released.

But the tension of the unexpressed is the very thing needed to complete the work!

Some moments and movements need silence.

I’m trying to learn and practice this.