Sitting Quietly in the Dark

It might sound strange to some, but sometimes I like to just sit in the dark, being very quiet.

It is night time now, and I'm sitting on the sofa with only a couple of dim lights — what you might call mood lights — on in the room. It is quiet now, the noise of the day has pretty much faded away and there's a calming stillness that remains; it's the "sound" of the world sleeping.

I suppose some might suggest that I'm merely meditating, but this is not some kind of structured practice. I'm just trying to find a moment where the stuff of life is not beating against my consciousness; a moment where nothing is calling me to "take the next step."

My phone automatically goes into "Do Not Disturb" mode at 11:00 p.m., so the buzzing and pinging of Internet notifications has stopped. At some level, there's a great deal of relief that comes with that!

I've had several people suggest to me that I should completely avoid screen time for the last two hours before I go to sleep, and sometimes I think that might actually be a pretty good idea. I haven't put it into practice yet, but I'm experimenting a little.

Otherwise, I'm already experimenting with not having any screen time first thing in the morning. I get up, start making the coffee, feed the cats their breakfast, clean the cat boxes, and then sit and enjoy my coffee on the back porch when the weather allows.

I sip my coffee slowly, without rush and without pressuring myself to hurry up and get going. I think modern humans put far too much emphasis on rushing to get to the next thing before they've even finished the current thing. What are we really gaining, from doing that?

And now I sit in the almost dark, late at night, without pressuring myself to hurry to bed, or to feel any sense of hurry at all. I might sit here for 10 minutes and I might sit here for an hour. A couple of weeks ago, I even nodded off to sleep while sitting here! I had a good solid 45 minute nap before getting up and going to bed proper.

I am just tired of rushing, and always feeling like I'm being rushed. As I've said many times before, our world emphasizes being in a hurry and constantly on the move far too much, and I don't believe it is good for our emotional health. And when our emotional and psychological health suffers it often tends to trickle over into our physical health, as well.

Sitting in the dark is about decompressing, as much as anything. My thoughts drift relatively freely, and I find myself thinking about people I have lost touch with, often people I genuinely miss even though I might not have met them in person.

I am grateful for being able to steal these quiet moments in the dark... they help me stay sane!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Friday!

How about YOU? Do you ever seek out quiet corners? What do you do to relax? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 2026.04.10 00:22 PST
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