Why are we so afraid of silence?
The brilliant blue butterfly fluttered mesmerizingly before the little boy as he absent-mindedly wandered away from his classmates and abandoned their class’ morning nature walk. Even though he heard his name being shouted off in the distance, he shrugged off any sign of concern. For he was too enamored by this delicate and beautiful creature as it lured him deeper into the heart of the forest.
When it finally came to rest on the boy’s tremoring fingertips, the boy gasped in a quiet moment of wonder and excitement. But before this holy moment was able to be fully taken in, the blood-curling growl of a massive white wolf shattered it into a million pieces.
In an instant, the boy found himself frantically bolting through the evergreen forest. As he ran, he looked frantically about scanning for any signs of his teacher or classmates. For he knew that this feral creature would instantly disappear as soon if fell into the site line of any other human being.
But to his dismay, no one was in sight. As his legs gradually gave out and his breath grew agonizingly heavy, he finally decided to stop running. As he reluctantly turned around to face the snarling beast, it pounced upon him.
Instead of being mauled to death, he felt a large leathery nose brush affectionately against his cold icy cheeks. A wet and warm tongue playfully tickled his ear lobes. And its massive coat of warm fluffy fur enveloped him with security and warmth.
When the teacher and the park rangers finally found the boy many hours later, he was contently asleep in the middle of the forest. The wolf was nowhere to be seen.
In this story, the wolf represents all the emotions, pains, and problems we regularly suppress and shove onto the backburners of our subconscious. And we often dread being alone and silent, for it is often in this vulnerable state that these subconscious feelings come out to stalk us. Even though many of us try to run away from these frightening and feral feelings, confronting them is the only way to make them go away. And when we do, these feelings often turn out to be a lot less intimidating that we originally fantasized them to be.
