Silence

Slowly the world starts to emerge with all its sounds and beauty. Distractions are stripped off one by one as I am no longer connected to the internet all the time. The apartment where I am staying has no Wi-Fi, no TV, no music. Allthough I have some songs on my phone, I usually leave them alone while working. Rule number 1: Do one thing at a time. When I brush my teeth I look out the window, and not my facebook feed. When I go to bed, I go to sleep. No show on youtube to accompany the day's last waking minutes. No last check to see if there are any new notifications. While folding paper - yes, that is my job right now - my hands are occupied, but my minds wanders. The world is still only a window away, cats are fighting in the streets, carhorns honking and the loud mumbling of turkish youth are slipping in and out of my consciousness. When I read for an hour or two every evening I know that no snap, tweet or message is going to disturb my focus. Of course, I am addicted to the net. I check facebook daily, and the main news sites back home. And instagram. And snapchat. And the visitor count on my blog. But the time spent decreases every day. I get my fix at the nearest cafe, usually a combination of caffeine and Wi-Fi. And then I move on. Not that I'm being very productive. I am happy wandering round, popping in and out of Sahafs, leafing through maps and atlases. Sometimes I bring my analogue camera. Sometimes I don't. There is no rush. This slow remedy is working, silence gives way to voices of near and far, forgotten ideas that should have been recorded and written down years ago resurfaces, the reality of my surroundings slips inside imagined worlds, both mine and others'. And I listen.