Silence

[resonant]

I had a strange experience yesterday, though I despair of being able to convey it in words.

I don't know about the rest of y'all, but I have a very chattery brain. If you come upon me unexpectedly, you'll usually catch me talking to myself; this is the only way I can hear my thoughts over my, well, other thoughts. If I wake up in the middle of the night, there'll already be a song in my head. It's very noisy in here.

Well, yesterday I walked to my coffee shop, had a mocha, and worked for a couple of hours. I completed a goal. Feeling very pleased with myself, I packed up my backpack and got ready to walk home --

And discovered that my brain had fallen silent.

There were no chains of thoughts, no ongoing arguments, no pileup of associations. Not even music. Thoughts floated into my head and floated out again.

It lasted twenty minutes, nearly all the way home.

I told the spouse about it and he said, "You're achieving enlightenment."

Comments

Recommended listening

[(Anonymous)]

Hiya. You don't know me, but I've enjoyed many of your fanfics. I recently stumbled across your blog and will probably stumble out again at some point.

Your description of your experience reminded me strongly of a Fresh Air interview I heard recently. The interviewee was a brain scientist who had a stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. She literally lost all ability to comprehend language for awhile. It sounds like it would be creepy, but she was wonderful to listen to - very positive. Fascinating, fascinating stuff. If you have time at some point, I truly recommend listening to it. The link is here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91861432
I think you can also download it in mp3 format somewhere. I can't recommend it enough.

Thanks very much for all your lovely stories. I hope to read more of them soon.
-Janice

Re: Recommended listening

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Interesting! I'll check it out.