By Harper Ripsteen, TIWP Student

Silence is always lurking. Lurking behind footsteps, conversations, and the voices in our heads. Lurking behind the barking of a dog, a timer going off, or your next-door neighbors annoyingly loud construction work. We can’t control the noises around us, so can true silence ever be achieved? Are we as humans able to sit with ourselves for just a moment without having to fill the silence? Maybe we can block out the “wait” sound coming from the button at the crosswalk, or the crunch of a leaf under someone’s foot, but can we block out our own slight adjustments, breathing, and the internal thoughts crowding our heads? No matter if the noises are coming from deep inside or are sitting right in front of us, we may never know if true silence really exists if we have never experienced it and are constantly surrounded by sound.