Silence can be the ultimate act of decluttering.

Silence is scarce. We attain momentary darkness every time we blink our eyes or close them for several minutes / hours when we sleep each night. Our eyes let us rest.

But silence? That can be much trickier to attain.

There are two kinds of silence: one is quiet surroundings and the other, much harder to attain, is a quiet mind. I have the luxury of living in a fairly noise-free neighborhood. I am learning (slowly) to also rest my mind.

My goal this month was to offer you a way to quiet the confusion and chatter in your mind. The essays during this month of “March On” invited you to create a well-stocked carry-on bag for your most essential heartfelt dreams and values. I explored with you by revisiting art, music, films, stories, artists, musicians, and storytellers. I swooned more than once with affectionate recognition.

I also explored my own artistic past. I was delighted by the dusty contents of my seven art portfolios, each one bulging with drawings, watercolor studies, and finished paintings that I created over the past fifty years. I am glad I saved them all, especially those charcoal sketches done in figure drawing class in the spring of 1971, on what is now crumbly brown newsprint. Those were exciting times.

Silence, inner and outward, offers us a blank planner page for the future. As we begin the second quarter of 2025, what barely-whispered words of your heart are easier to hear and honor now that you have your personalized carry-on kit?

My new “Desert Island Me” travel bag contents will guide my decisions over the next few months. I plan to go beyond simple obedience to social and medical appointments, and also create non-negotiable time for activities reflecting the contents of my new “this is the real me” carry-on luggage.

Every week I will spend 8 hours painting with watercolor, creating a Q2 body of work by the end of June 2025.

Every week I will spend 4 hours watching inspirational films about famous artists and musicians who dedicated their lives to their creative practice. I will learn more about William Morris and the British Arts & Crafts Movement. I will honor that strange experience I had at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston last year by studying the brief life of Vincent van Gogh. I highly recommend a film starring Benedict Cumberbatch called “Vincent van Gogh: Painted with Words.” In this film, every word spoken by actors is a direct quote from letters written by van Gogh, his brother Theo, or other people with whom Vincent exchanged letters. The script is 100% loyal to the actual words written at the time. Cumberbatch’s performance is, by necessity, interpretive. He brings the humanity, madness, and genius of van Gogh to life in a brilliant, fresh new way.

I will be moving to a new home sometime this year, so I will also dedicate 12 hours a week to sorting, donating, discarding, and loving the objects in my home that have “made the cut” through the 18 moves I have made in my life. Distilling my life yet again, intentionally this time rather than as a reaction to a sudden change of circumstances, feels like a luxury. All those choices will be far clearer with my new vision of Desert Island Me.

In the silence, I hear the clock of my life ticking. It always has been, but I was too busy, too preoccupied, to hear it. My Desert-Island Me kit clarifies my hearing, seeing, and thinking.

In the silence, remember to breathe. And stretch. And smile. Take time to dream too about the first thing you want to hear when the silence is broken.

Perhaps it will be the infectious sound of laughter. Never a bad idea.

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As always, thanks for spending some time with me “aloft.” Happy gazing and sketching!