Hush Little Baby?
A reflection on rest
by Michael “Maj” Allen
FIRST SENSES!
Our first sense of reality wasn’t in a bright, loud, or busy environment. It was hidden.
Before we ever opened our eyes, checked a screen, answered a message, scrolled a feed, sat in traffic, or felt the pressure to keep up, we lived in a dim and protected place. The womb was our first environment — dark, enclosed, rhythmic, and strangely peaceful.
The sounds around us were not sharp or demanding. They were muffled, low, fluid, and steady: the movement of the body, the pulse of life, the sound of water-like motion all around us. Science tells us that babies in the womb begin hearing around mid-pregnancy, but what they hear is filtered. Amniotic fluid and surrounding tissue soften the sound, leaving mostly lower, rhythmic tones. In other words, our earliest world was not silence exactly.
It was softened sound.
A kind of mercy.
A kind of quiet.
I’ve often wondered whether that first environment still speaks to something deep in us all.
Light is one of the main signals our bodies use to determine when to be alert and when to rest. Darkness does the opposite. It tells the body to settle down, supports our natural rhythm, and helps with melatonin production — the hormone connected to sleep. That’s why the sound of water calms so many of us. A stream. Rain. Waves. A fountain in the distance. These sounds do not demand anything from us. They do not ask us to perform. They simply move, steadily and gently, reminding the nervous system that it doesn’t always have to brace for impact. And maybe that’s why so much of modern life quietly wears us down. We live surrounded by light, alerts, voices, music, opinions, screens, deadlines, and noise. Not all of it is bad. Much of it’s normal. Some of it’s even necessary. But normal does not always mean healthy. Noise has consequences.
Harvard Medicine Magazine notes that even people who “tune out” noise pollution, whether awake or asleep, can still experience autonomic stress reactions — meaning the body may still be responding even when the mind thinks it has adjusted. The World Health Organization has also treated environmental noise as a public health concern, connecting excessive noise with annoyance, sleep disturbance, cardiovascular risks, and mental health concerns. So even when we think we’re “used to it,” the body may still be working. The nervous system is still bracing for impact, and over all, the soul is increasingly worn down.
That makes me wonder:
Do we live in the noise so long that we start mistaking stimulation for life? Do we become so accustomed to interruption that stillness feels strange? Do we unknowingly build patterns of self-imposed insanity, not because we mean to, but because we never stop long enough to ask what all this noise is doing to our souls? Maybe rest is not laziness. Maybe quiet is not emptiness. Maybe stillness is not a lack of productivity.
Maybe it’s a return.
A return to the basics. A return to the body’s original language. A return to the place where the mind can stop defending itself, the body can stop bracing itself, and the soul can finally hear again.
So today, maybe the invitation is simple:
Turn something off. Dim something down. Step away from the noise. Let your mind breathe. Let your body remember rest. Let your soul become quiet enough to notice that peace was never as far away as you thought. And by the way, Lisa and I are “NOT” expecting twins, as the photo suggests.
You can relax.
Although, that would be TREMENDOUS!
Ok, I’m gonna take a nap now!