Henry was on his way to class when he saw her. “She is Gorgeous”, he thought. She was wearing a cute pink sweater. The kind that was distracting to any males in the vicinity. He apparently was not the only one noticing her, as he was knocked on his ass by a bicyclist. “Oh my gosh are you ok?”, he asked the dude tangled up in his bike. The guy groaned. So Henry rolled over and go to his knees to see he was ok. The guy hadn’t been wearing a helmet, so he had taken a blow to the head when he fell. The next thing Henry knew was the woman he had been gawking at was kneeling next to him trying to help him up. After he was standing and he didn’t seem to wobble. Be bent over the bicyclist to help him get untangled from the bike. The guy was still groaning even though he wasn’t attached to the bike anymore. “Hi, my name’s Henry. I’m a professor here. Would you mind helping me take him to the nurse on campus?” She slowly smiled and said, “Sure. I’m Sherry by the way. This is my first day here. I’m the new professor in Physics.” This new bit of information got Henry all excited, until he realized it was against policy for the Head professor to date another professor in the same department.

My friend gave me a parrot. She said it was completely annoying and couldn’t handle it talking to her all of the time. With this Covid crap going around, I didn’t mind the extra company in my lonely apartment. Well my friend wasn’t lying, the parrot talked. But it kept repeating the same question over and over again, “What’s my name?” At first I guessed Lupe, Chico, Delores, Alba, and so on. Well it got old and every time I guessed wrong the Parrot would scream horrible cuss words at me. It got to be a terrible game for me. I decided to quit guessing, but every time it saw me it would ask me again, and again, and again, and AGAIN! One day the stupid thing was pestering me so badly that I was at the end of my rope. I picked up the Cage.
I carried it to our second story window. I opened the window. I opened the cage door and I grabbed the Parrot. I held him out the window and I shouted, “Your Johnny Freebird!! Now Fly AWAY!!” I let him go and he immediately flew back into my house. Then Johnny said, “How was your day, Joan? Mine was Crazy!!!”

At this point in their hike they decided to disregard the map, because it didn’t seem to apply. They had been walking for hours and still had not found the connecting trail. They had tried to turn around and retrace their steps but the trail itself seem to change and took turns they did not remember seeing during the first pass through. To make things worse the forest had taken on a different feel. The air had taken a chill and seemed to have a mist hanging low to the ground. They couldn’t hear any movement or sounds from animals, birds, or bugs. Then the sun seemed to disappear and that’s when they could see the eerie green glow coming from further up the trail. Every instinct they had told them to run but instead they were drawn towards it. Slowly in a trance like state, the hiking group walked into the green glowing light. One by one they disappeared off the face of this Earth.

Silence can hold a plethora of meanings. Silence is like words it can be used to build people up or to tear them down.
When used as a weapon during a fight it can have leaving the both parties mentally drained and feeling everything from guilt, sorrow, anger, and even a sense of power from knowing that you have hurt them as much as you feel hurt.

On the other hand silence can be used as a means to calm one’s own mind. Many use silent meditation as a way to seek peace, to better understand themselves or their lives.

For many of us even if we find the silence we seek it is hard to quiet our minds. With many years of practicing meditation many continue to struggle with finding their inner peace.