A strange phenomenon emerged from my spending hours each day this past Summer, guiding whitewater kayaking trips down the Upper Green River nestled in the wild and rugged Green River Gorge. And it lingers still.
I call it silence...the silence found within Nature. But I suppose this word isn’t really the essence of it. Stillness, comes a little closer to describe. And then as I’ve talked about this to others what also comes to mind is the lack of sound pollution...as in human-made sound. Such as cars or trucks passing, people talking, thuds or bumps or booms, airplanes flying over head...you get the idea.
I used to explain this to guests on the van ride down to the Upper Green River put-in. I’d say to them, “You’re about to experience a phenomenon in the wild where you’ll hear nature’s silence. And you’ll know exactly when this occurs because you’ll hear a strange sound ahead of us when we reach a certain point on the river. A thump, thump thump. This is when you’ll know you’ve just experienced Nature’s silence, because it will be broken by a human-made noise.”
This noise was created by the sound of semi-trucks and automobiles crossing the Peter Guice Memorial Bridge (connecting both sides of I-26 over the Green River Gorge) which we paddled directly under. The silence to noise ratio was unmistakable here in this very spot.
After just a few weeks of being immersed daily in natural surroundings where non-human sound exists, loud noises became increasingly aggravating to me. I began to drive in silence...no music or radio. Loud mufflered pick-up trucks that passed where I was became like fingernails on a chalk board. Any loud sounds were disturbing.
I’m reminded of similar phenomenon that played out with Appalachian Trail through hikers. Where re-adjusting back into civil life was incredibly complicated and difficult. After having spent months in the wilderness walking amongst the stillness...imagine how unsettling just the sound of downtown city traffic would be, let alone a train engine horn, or a blaring radio.
The beauty of this...well, turns out it’s become just another thing I’m sorting out. What sounds do I now willfully expose myself too? I find that I turn off sound more than I turn it on and when I listen to music, instrumental music like Native American Flute is mostly what’s on my playlist.
There’s a kind of listening ability that’s unlocked from within this knowing of silence. (Which being immersed in Nature’s silence clearly unlocked for me). And I recognize the slightest interruptions within the continuity of combined sounds and silence like never before.
Being bombarded with sound also means being bombarded by vibration...because all sound carries with it a vibration. Is it any wonder that when you experience next to zero cluttered and disorderly vibrational sounds and when you do experience it again that it’s revolting?
Yet again...Nature teaches me some of the most fantastical things. She is a living, breathing, loving, classroom...radiating with wonder!
Photo Credit: pixabay (dot) com
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