The lessons that silence has taught me.

I've just spent a priceless while walking in the snowy cold. I'm inside now, warm and safe. My hands are blue and warming quickly. My hair is wet, and the last flakes of snow are just now melting into it, making it curl.
I was walking in a place that I have loved since I moved here seven years ago, a place that has kept me strong and sane and safe. It's a small, quiet haven here in the city. I have known the trees as they've grown, many new ones planted recently, in fact, in the time that I have lived here. I've memorized so many of the names that mark the grave sites lining the paved roads and pathways.
I often times hear the sound of the wind russling through the leaves as I drift off to sleep. The pathways of the Lehi Cemetery have been the setting of countless numbers of my dreams.
As the snow falls within the fences and the world around it is muffled, the magic of the place intensifies. The quiet peace of the cemetery brings back memories of the past and helps to develop a clearer view of future possibilities. As the thick white flakes make crisp sounds on the ground, it's as if the voices of those memories are in my ears, heightening the sense that I am not alone here. I feel closer to the earth, closer to myself. I can think clearly.
All too often I forget this magnificent gift, this safe haven so close to my home. In a matter of months I will pack up my things and be off to college. I'll be leaving this place behind me, and I will miss it.
But I know I will still fall asleep to the sound of snow flakes coming to rest on the wet ground. I will dream of the wind singing its way through green leaves, soon to capture sun colors and dry up and fall to the ground. I will remember the many songs I sang in that place, and the special people I shared it with. I will remember these things because they carried with them the spirit of strength and light that is so rare, and often lost in this world of noises and bustling. I will never forget the peace that spirit has given me through my personal battles. Through my own mistakes and pain.
The greatest lessons I have learned in my life seem to have come through silence. They have come through running to a place where I can feel alone and safe and loved and free. Today, in the cold, I realized how fortunate I am to have had this place near to me, and how sad I am to leave it behind. It will always have a place within my soul, near to the heart of me. I will never forget all of those song filled walks in the cold.
In the rain.
In the wind.
In the the snow.
In the beaming sunshine.
I will never forget the lessons that silence has taught me.