Words for Silence

For a while now, I've assumed the fire elementals won't communicate verbally — or at least not typically.

The earth elementals were simple. The wind elementals resonated so closely with me. I have a pretty strong feeling about who and what the water elementals are.

In any case, fires won't speak often. Rather, they'll press thoughts and feelings toward people. It won't be like reading minds. Consider the difference between thinking about somebody and thinking at somebody. When you think about someone — even if they are near — you are still separating yourself from them. When you are thinking at someone, it is usually in the context of having a conversation, and you're readying thoughts to share.

Also, there will be varying levels of literacy, varying levels of clarity — even when communicating non-verbally.

Lately, I've been thinking about rest, quiet, silence. I have a lot of noise in my life. I have a lot of sounds too! A lot of music and voices. But I also have a lot of noise: disruptive, destructive sound. Some of it is my fault.

Regardless, I've been considering the value of quiet. It doesn't have to be audio silence. I'm also thinking about a quiet mind, a quiet spirit, a quiet body. My mind is almost never quiet. I say "almost" because superlatives like never are dangerous, but my mind is never quiet.

I've embraced it. I even enjoy it most of the time. But I think that, when my spirit is also not quiet, my mind gets out of control. I always have thoughts, and I can almost always turn them into words. Before I wake up, thoughts are clicking. As I go to sleep, thoughts are whirring away. I can usually follow my string of thoughts back to the beginning of a conversation. Etc.

A few nights ago, however, MY BRAIN WOULD NOT SHUT UP. It was a good day, and the thought themselves were mild, but I was trying to sleep, and the thoughts kept clicking!

I think fires will have a whole set of words for silence.