The seventeenth meeting of World Speakers’ Coalition Kuala Lumpur returned to another familiar haunt – Jarrod & Rawlins in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur – and new member, Kathleen Poon organized and hosted this monthly event.
The theme she chose was “The Comforting Power of Silence” – and nine of us were present, seven members and two guests.
The topic aside, we didn’t stay silent, that's for sure – and which goes to show that we do love speaking!
It means that we all recognize the power in our words – but at the same time, there are times when we ought not ignore the power of our silence.
Silence is the absence of willful sound or purposeful quiet – and for many of us, it can be unsettling.
That’s because we’re so used to omnipresent noise. And being in a world filled with constant babble and chatter, and ringtones and bells, we may intentionally or unintentionally ostracize silence.
But we know silence can mean different things to different people. And in yesterday’s meeting, we shared our understanding of what silence means to us personally.
Nonetheless, I would like to retell this story I’ve read – of how a simple act of merely being with another person and not speaking a word can itself be a source of comfort.
It’s about a young girl who went to visit the home of a neighbor where her little friend had died. When she returned, her father asked her why she went.
“To comfort her mother”, she told him.
The father was incredulous and asked her what she could have done to console a woman who had suffered a terrible loss.
Rational appeals, sympathetic words or clichés could not have done as much as this simple act. Whereas many adults think that they have to say the right word or try to distract the bereaved from thoughts of the departed, the girl knew that there was nothing that could be said.
But that didn’t mean that nothing could be done. Sitting on the mother’s lap didn’t lessen the pain; it may have added to it. But it was an expression of caring and concern, a reaching out from the heart, a gesture of hope. It symbolized the continuation of life but did not diminish the anguish. The girl was right: grief genuinely shared is an important means of healing.
Truly, in this narrative, we see the comforting power of silence.
Acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton shared this: “Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything”. So true.
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