The post-it reads “The value of silence, also the danger of silence.”
Silence can mean many things.
All dependent on context.
If you are in church, you are probably praying.
If you are in a hospital at the bedside of someone who is dying, you are probably praying and holding your breath.
If you are in a surgical room and the surgeon has just dropped the vital one-of-a-kind instrument, you are probably praying, holding your breath, and planning your exit strategy.
There is also remaining silent in the face of an injustice.
But that is more of a Monday Musing post kind of thing.
Going back to the text of the post-it, there is value in silence.
This can be after a surgeon or doctor says there is nothing left to be done.
This can be after a pathologist states that the margins are clean and there is no evidence of cancer.
Sometimes the silence means you have a moment to catch your breath.
Sometimes the silence is just the pause before all hell breaks loose.
Often I have turned the radio down or even off if there is a particularly difficult part in an operation. You learn how to read the room and how to decide when music is appreciated and when it should be cut off.
There is a reason that the eye of a hurricane is meant to be silent and still.
There is also danger in silence. Kind of like the Monday Musing post I have not even written but have alluded to above.
Silence can be ominous and, at those times, it is to be respected.
Never fear the silence.
Also never think you have to fill up the silence.
Sometimes silence is, in and of itself, okay.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 