Sounds of Silence

This morning, on my way to a golf course-turned-park, I heard a portion of WNYC's program, On Being, in which Krista Tippett interviewed Gorden Hempton, an acoustic ecologist. (You can hear the entire interview online.) He observed that our eyes have lids so that we can close out sight, but that our ears do not have any flaps to close out sound - because sound, more than sight, is necessary for survival. At one point, he described in detail each sound he heard. That inspired me to focus on my hearing as I walked along the paths. The quiet afforded me the ability to notice the rhythmic slapping of my sneakers as they hit the blacktop. I recognized the calls of mocking birds, mourning doves, crows and crickets. The breeze rustled through both leafy and needled trees. The sounds of nature were joined by the rumble of an occasional freight train, the distant roar of a plane, and the greetings of others who passed in the opposite direction. I realized as I attended to all these sounds, that I was  in the habit of noticing with my eyes, but not with my ears. That program was such a gift to me! I'll be more attentive to listening as I train for the Camino.