There is a problem you are not dealing with. It sits underneath the activity. Underneath the busyness. Underneath the complaints about smaller things. You can feel it when the noise drops below a certain level. So you keep the noise up. The manufactured problem has a useful quality. It is addressable. It has a concrete shape. It produces urgency without requiring you to go anywhere uncomfortable.
You can spend hours on it. Days. You can feel productive. You can feel like you are dealing with something. The actual problem remains untouched. This is not always conscious. The noise does not always feel chosen. The distractions arrive and you follow them, and it is only in the rare moments of stillness that you notice the thing underneath.
You notice it and then find the next thing that needs your attention. The noticing gets buried again. Silence has a specific function in this. Silence removes the cover. It creates the conditions in which whatever is being avoided becomes visible. This is why most people are uncomfortable with silence. Not because silence is unpleasant. Because silence is revealing.
In silence, you find out what you have been carrying. The problem you are avoiding is not always large. Sometimes it is a conversation you have not had. A decision you have been deferring. A feeling you have not allowed. The avoidance is always larger than the avoided thing.
The energy spent keeping it out of view costs more than addressing it would. You already know what it is.
