Five Days of Silence Woke Me Up To Something I Never Expected

On boredom, sadness and finding excitement in the most unusual places

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Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.

-Simon & Garfunkel

I’m sitting on a bed in a tiny studio, walls covered in nothing but white. Facing me are two windows lined with bars to keep out intruders and as I gaze out, several trees with their shiny green leaves turning matte yellow wave hello. I inhale the fresh breeze and am surprised how peaceful I feel in this bare space with its infrequent light.

I’m living partially below ground (in what may have been servants’ quarters) of a white villa built in the 1890’s for two weeks. In the outskirts of Berlin, this old mansion sits on a small lake surrounded by the Grunewald Forest where I take a small wooden chair every morning to sip my coffee, the only conversation being with a red squirrel rustling through the trees wagging its furry tail, stopping on occasion to stare at…