Trailer, Christmas Valley, Oregon
Put it all away. Turn it all off. Cell phone, computer, television, iPod…all of it, just shut it down and set it aside. Go find a quiet place. And listen.
A quiet place is not a silent place. There are the seven thousand sounds of wind and the immeasurable murmurings of insects. There are the utterances of the air; the whuffing of birdwing, the whistle and warble of songbirds, the almost echo of displaced air. There is a sound made by a snake as it undulates laterally through tall grass; there is no other sound like it and it has no name.
Most people never get to hear that sound. If they hear it, they don’t know what it is. But if you go someplace quiet and listen, you can learn to identify it. You can be the one to put a name to that sound. But you’ll never be able to make it yourself. That sound belongs to the snake and to the tall grass.
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