I live in a quiet rural area, very little traffic passes my house, and sitting here this morning all I can hear is birdsong and the fridge running in the next room, which is a low background whine. It'll stop shortly. Later in the day I might hear neighbours' children playing outside, but mostly I'm used to a considerable degree of stillness in my everday life.
Perhaps my baseline for what constitutes troublesome noise is low. I'm quite sensitive to sound and to distraction, and I always struggle with focus in environments where there are multiple sources of sound, especially if there is a radio playing in the room or in the car and then someone says something to me. It takes me several seconds to shift my attention from the voice on the radio to the voice in the room, and many times every day I have to ask someone to repeat what they just said.
Then there's the mental chatter, the 'monkey mind' which carries on all day. This journal is one way to bring some stillness and organisation to that, but otherwise I find it requires special effort to control it, or if not to control it then at least to be aware of it. Paying attention to ambient sounds can be a useful way to replace the chatter, especially if I follow my breath at the same time.
If I don't make an effort to focus I can lose long periods of time to mental wandering, from one subject to another, replaying events and conversations from the past and anticipating things which have yet to happen. Hours or whole days can be lost that way. But when I can switch off the chatter and find stillness it seems to bring a kind of contentment which isn't achieved in other ways, even if it's just for a moment. It feels like being close to seeing things as they really are, like actually experiencing my life.
No writing on the solitary, meditative dimensions of life can say anything that has not already been said better by the wind in the pine trees - Thomas Merton, Trappist monk,
In the city of Wells, a few days ago, I was in the 800 year-old cathedral. A volunteer guide was showing a small group of us around, and his voice was low and comforting. I was very much focussed on that moment, listening to the history of the building, but other noises intruded. Someone playing the audio tour guide to the cathedral loudly on her phone came and stood near us. An older couple joined the tour half way through with their young grandchildren, who appeared to mistake the nave for a playground. I suppose a medieval cathedral is not just a church, it's also a tourist attraction, and maybe people who visit as tourists would behave differently, be less noisy, if they were there for Evensong[1]. Nevertheless, I felt distracted and irritated.
Outside a little later I walked around the gardens of the Bishop's Palace. Loud music could be heard from a charity event just over the palace walls. That was interrupted from time to time by announcements over the P.A. which were also loud. It was not the best day to be there. I don't recall a time when I wasn't so aware of sound, or of noise (which is just unwanted sound, I suppose), and I don't remember whether things were always like this. Are people less concerned about disturbing others these days? When did people start to believe it is OK to have conversations on speakerphone, anywhere they wish?
I have a pair of Loop earplugs which I need to use in crowded, noisy indoor places like coffee shops. Using them more in other places seems like it's going to be a good idea.
[1] Daily during the Cathedral School term time - https://www.wellscathedral.org.uk/worship-and-music/worship-at-wells
Email: kdan01 [at] posteo [dot] net