When I was young I used to spend the summer days and nights in my treehouse playing and getting lost in books. I never liked to read much when I was young, but when I had a book in my hand that was about a young boy off adventuring in the world I would get lost in the pages. But it’s not so much the books I remember, but a special moment in which I would daydream as if I was in the story and be so in peace that I would fall asleep and wake up hours later. Whatever was going on inside quickly became a placid lake and I would wake up refreshed and ready to dive back into the pages and start it all over again.

There weren’t many children around the play with, so it was always my dog and I in the yard and I would make up heroic situations in which I would save her. I guess you could say that I have had a little bit of knight-in-shining-armour syndrome since I was young. But I was taught something special throughout all these years of playing in the yard with my companion. Some might say it is the ability to entertain myself. Yes, to some extent I agree. However, I think it goes a little bit deeper than that. I think what I learned is exactly what is written in the quote above from Hooks: loving others unconditionally – for exactly what they are and exactly what they aren’t.

Now of course implementation of this message took a long while…in fact I have to say I am still learning this lesson every day and will probably have this taught to me throughout my entire life. But, without a doubt I have become more accepting of many different types of people and kept myself open to opportunities that I would have closed myself off to before. The stories of the deaf and mute man and the man with the prosthetic leg come to mind.

I know for a fact that it is in the silent moments where our internal voice becomes the loudest. We start to hear what is actually going on for a change when everything around us is drowned out. But when there is something in our stomach…guilt, anxiety, fear, doubt etc. those quiet moments can get really uncomfortable incredibly fast.

Learning how to appreciate the dead silence when no one is around is a blessing. Very special things can happen when you tune in to that voice which whispers to you your dreams and goals.

– Evan Sanders