Dead Silence Walking, Joys of Nature |
 Feb 18 2006, 11:46 AM
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#1
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Official Singer of the Sorting Hat Song  Posts: 6,606 Joined: 3:12pm July 22, 2005 Location: Lost in Hermione's beaded bag    |
I like walking. And no, I don't have an iPod or other music player with earphones providing me with a soundtrack as I walk. I also don't talk on a cellphone or even carry one while I walk. Why would I?
I like walking. Alone. I like hearing the wind in the trees, the call of Canada geese flying in V-formation, or the sound of rushing water as I come to the river bank. I like walking down my tree-lined street to the park that has a river run through it. I walk over the footbridge to the cemetery that has been there for over 175 years and is filled with tall trees which, so I've been told, are technically "weeds" that grew up during the decade when the cemetery was in bankruptcy protection. It's odd. I've just read another story about Canada's shrinking Artic icecap and scientists testifying we've passed a "tipping point" in Global Warming. It's all very depressing. But when I walk I see people driving by in cars, people plugged into iPods, people yakking on their cellphones, or typing on their Blackberries. I doubt these people are aware that they're living on a green-blue planet teeming with life. They're so tied up in their techno-gadgets that they might as well be on the Starship Enterprise. I like walking. I like nature. I like the wind on my face and the sound of nature in my ears. I like to see trees, grass, flowers, squirrels, crows, snow falling, sunlight and moonshine. And I like silence. Dead silence. And a night so dark that the stars burn bright upon my retina. I worry that I am more often alone on my walks. The streets are empty. The parks deserted. I feel like a Dean Man Walking. Am I crazy? Does anyone else love this World Unplugged? -------------------- Come the words that bubble
Up through broken laughter, Sweeter than spring-water, "Gods, I am so happy!" |
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Feb 18 2006, 12:15 PM
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#2
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Disgruntled House-Elf at The Leaky Cauldron Posts: 446 Joined: 3:58pm September 3, 2005 Location: In the laundry room at Hogwarts, trying to scourgify Snape's dingy greys, into tidy whiteys! |
I think that technology has become a necessary evil in the world. ( I am saying that as I am typing to all of my internet friends at Leaky!
 ) I love it when even just my house is completely quiet. I love to hear the wind rustle the leaves. I love to go on walks, but they are the most fun when my husband and I go together and talk. That doesn't mean I enjoy the sounds of nature. The thing that bothers me the most in the high pitched sound that comes with electronics. Most around me, I have found, don't hear it, but I do. It is really annoying. It really does make me appreciate when it is totally quiet--those are moments I feel that in our time, we have to make happen. Technology---especially tv does suck your life away from you. Anyway, I'm just babbling----disturbing the peace 
-------------------- I don't give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence!
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Feb 18 2006, 10:54 PM
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#3
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Professional Diagon Alley Window Shopper Posts: 69 Joined: 9:32am January 30, 2005 Location: Mississippi |
"Walks" aren't necissarily what I like about nature - not to say I don't love it. There are times I do like the company of my cell phone and iPod, but they are inside my house. What I love about nature, though, is just sitting. Not in my Mississippi, to enjoy nature in Mississippi I would have to take a drive up to about three hours to see "nature" - a flat field of cotton. Yep.
However, when I go to Colorado every summer, there I find the most beautiful surroundings ever. We stay in my great grandmothers cabin, it has no television, no computer. It has an old radio and that's it. The cabin itself feels natural, not jacked up with technology. Then I do take walks with my cousins out there, bonding time and such. But my favorite part comes at night. We go out with our hot chocolate and sit on the creaky old wooden porch, and look up. I have never seen stars so bright. Wow. It looks like a big sheet of black velvet with little shiny diamonds scattered about it. That's nature at its best to me, the stars shining over the outlines of the snow capped mountains while the breeze plays with your hair. It's amazing. And then one night every year we climb a mountain and camp out under the stars. You don't even care that you're "dirty", you look at the stars all night and it's wonderful. This is going to sound corny, but when I walk my dog here there is one street in our neigborhood that is lined with trees that form a kind of canopy over the black top. The lamp posts and houses and cars fill up the street, but everytime I pass it I can't help thinking what that street looked like before all the houses were added. I think it would have been the most gorgeous spot in Mississippi. I really do. Yeah, that post was kind of scatterbrained, my apologies. -------------------- "Crouch was now talking fluently to a tree again..."
Page 555, GOF |
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Feb 19 2006, 12:30 AM
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#4
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Junior Dishwasher at The Leaky Cauldron Posts: 613 Joined: 11:54pm November 22, 2005 Location: Stalking Voldy with a PTRD (14.5mm anti-tank rifle) |
Walks, you have no idea. They're something special. I walk home a lot. It's 2 miles from home to school, my friends think I'm crazy (probably because I walk in the pitch darkness without lights or anything to show I'm there) When I walk home, generally, I do it to cry. Crying is something that I don't like to do in front of people. It's not that I'm ashamed of letting my feelings show, but rather that I don't want to pull anyone down. How can I describe walking under the sky? It's something so big and you feel so small. At night, all you have are your stars, stars you give names to. There's Ashley, a bit to the North and East of Alex, and, maybe, if I'm lucky, I can catch a glimpse of Dana. On the best nights, my friends come together to create constellations. The Big and Little Dippers are filled with love as I stroll, alone, down the shoulder of my route home. It's a burning pink passion tonight. The sun comes down in a radiant finale, and I'm just an extra. "Hello there, the angel of my nightmare. The unsuspecting victim of darkness in the valley. And in the night we'll wish this never ends. I cannot sleep, I cannot dream tonight," Blink 182 says. "I miss you. Stop this pain tonight." We could fly to Neverland, or I could use my frozen tears to skate us home.
Occasionally someone will ask if I want a ride. Sometimes I can't take it. There is pain much too great. Blood red sunsets, burning orange, lashing yellow, or sometimes, an intense green flicker. Then black. There is nothing more to see, for nothing can be seen. Cars will flash by, but they do not see me. I am but a ghost of my former self. I walk not to survive, but to find home. I haven't yet, I don't know my way, but I know where it is. I just hope I'm headed in the right direction. -------------------- "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things--friendship and bravery..."
-Hermione Granger (Okay, it's no secret, I love Hermione)  |
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Feb 19 2006, 12:35 PM
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#5
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Rat Spleen Restocker at the Apothecary Posts: 479 Joined: 11:49pm July 22, 2005 |
I love walking alone at night. My friends used to yell at me about it in college, but it's so peaceful.
I remember one particular instance - I was up on a northern part of my college's campus, which is about 5 miles separated from the rest of it...on the other side of some fields and an arboretum. I was out late talking with an old friend who lived up there, and I missed the last bus back by probably 2 hours. It was 3am, and I'm sure I could have stayed, but it had been snowing - a nice, light dusting - earlier in the night and I knew I had to walk out in it. The woods were so quiet, there were no lights, but I'd walked through them so many times I could have done it with my eyes closed. It smelled so clean and cold...you know how icy cold seems to have its own scent? Well, I got back to my own place over an hour later, fully refreshed and not cold in the slightest. Amazing how having so many sensory cues at once can block out some others. Anyway, I live in a completely different climate now - I'm in the desert southwest of the US, and there is a whole new set of wonderful things to experience. When I first moved out here I was always asking people "What's that plant?", "What's that smell?" The spring is usually filled with a million different kinds of flower scents from wildflowers in the deserts. I love it, but I guess it's agony if you have pollen allergies. (No flowers this year - it hasn't rained at all in 4 months...3 weeks past the all-time record for the area) When it DOES rain though, at any time during the year there are two smells that stand out. One is the mesquite trees. Especially in the summer when the wood is really hot to start with, any rain makes the outdoors smell incredibly spicy in a woody way (and somewhat reminiscent of a barbecue pit before the meat goes on). I guess the other smell, so far as others have been able to tell me, comes from the creosote plant. It's hard to describe, but when rain's in the air - wow! Completely refreshing and different from anything I've ever smelled elsewhere. I agree with davidenglish on the techology ruining it. I don't have an ipod or cell phone specifically for my love of the quiet of nature. If I'm not at home (where I have access a telephone) then I'm probably either busy or enjoying myself...in either case I don't want to be bothered by someone who wants to chat but isn't with me. As for the music - while in a car - fine...and I have a stereo for that. But if I'm out walking, I want to enjoy the walk. Besides, that's the first thing I always told my worried friends about walking in the middle of the night. The WORST thing you can do while walking alone is to not be completely aware of your surroundings. Cellphones and music devices taking your attention away from the people around you make you a perfect target for a mugging or worse. |
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Feb 19 2006, 01:37 PM
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#6
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Hiding in the Iron Maiden at Borgin and Burkes Posts: 336 Joined: 10:06am December 31, 2005 |
i love walking at night through the woods, but i always have someone there, wether its boyfriend or best friend, but when we go were are silent. we just walk and look, and think, and remember and stuff. but we like to sit to, at the cazeebo and just look at the water in scilence.
-------------------- if i should die show me no pity, just bury me in my gangsta city, with my flag laid across my chest, tell mis carnales i did my best"
theres ten year old men and fifty year old kids-spm captain jack sparrow will not be brougth down by a kraken! me=chocolate. |
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Feb 19 2006, 01:41 PM
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#7
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Junior Dishwasher at The Leaky Cauldron Posts: 621 Joined: 7:20pm January 28, 2005 Location: Boston |
I don't take as many walks as I would like. Living in the city I find it hard to get away to nature as often Id like to. My favorite escape, however is my garden. Nothing is more relaxing that having my hands in the dirt. With the bird chirping, my daughter chasing grasshoppers, and the flowers and vegetables growing I am at peace. It is my favorite form of meditation. Between focusing on the work and the lack of distractions gardening seems to help me find solutions to problems that are eating at me. I can't wait for spring to come so I can get back to it.
-------------------- Yes, I rather like this God fellow. He's very theatrical, you know, a pestilence here, a plague there. Omnipotence. Gotta get me some of that. ~Stewie Griffin
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Feb 19 2006, 02:02 PM
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Just Through the Brick Wall Posts: 16 Joined: 8:45pm December 2, 2005 Location: My Own Little World |
This is an interesting topic, davidenglish ... and I'm sure you've quickly noticed that you're not alone in your enjoyment of nature. However, I agree with you that when out in the world, it can easily feel like you're the only one who enjoys the natural world ... I feel this way much of the time, too.
Have you heard of "Nature Deficit Disorder"? It's an actual thing where researchers are finding that some of the ADD characteristics children exhibit are caused by them NEVER or rarely being in contact with the natural world! Our society has become SO focused on all that technology has to offer ... and it does offer many wonderful things ... but EVERYTHING IN MODERATION! Anyway ... you should feel fortunate living in Canada and being able to enjoy all the beauty your country has to offer. I live in South Dakota, about a six-hour drive from the Canadian border, and I, too, enjoy the sound of the geese making their travels north and south. (I'm always amazed when I hear them at night and look up and see them flying in a little V!) It is quite scary to see how much humans are damaging the planet! I am taking two environmental classes this semester -- Environmental Ethics and Resource & Environmental Economics -- and am trying to figure out a way to remain passionate about furthering this cause without getting so overwhelmed by the never-ending damage. :read: A book recommendation: "One World: The Ethics of Globalization" by Peter Singer. In it, he talks about the spread of Western ideals throughout the globe and what we can do, what we must do to change all that. I hope that these posts have helped you feel a little better ... keep letting others know about the importance of experiencing nature AND listening to nature ... and you'll make a significant impact. Thanks again for the post! |
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Feb 19 2006, 02:23 PM
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#9
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Junior Dishwasher at The Leaky Cauldron Posts: 621 Joined: 7:20pm January 28, 2005 Location: Boston |
I agree that it is important for more people to get out there and experience nature. Maybe then, once they appreciate what it is they are killing, people will be more proactive in protecting the earth.
-------------------- Yes, I rather like this God fellow. He's very theatrical, you know, a pestilence here, a plague there. Omnipotence. Gotta get me some of that. ~Stewie Griffin
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Feb 19 2006, 02:32 PM
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#10
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Just Through the Brick Wall Posts: 16 Joined: 8:45pm December 2, 2005 Location: My Own Little World |
You're right ... you also mentioned that you live in a city. I think urban areas are a big contributor to all of this "nature problem, because it's more of a challenge to be around natural things. Though, like you said, something as simple as a garden or a bird feeder can make all the difference.
I love watching the variety of birds that come to the feeder I have outside my kitchen window! So, even if I'm busy doing things that need to get down instead of being outside (although lately it's been below zero out!), I feel like I'm still in touch with non-technology things. So much of humans' problems are not paying attention to what happens after you do something ... from being rude to a clerk waiting on you without thinking how that impacted his/her day to throwing trash on the ground or driving our cars too much ... we so often do not consider the consequences of our actions! |
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