I got back five days ago and for the first time have the leisure to write a bit, although it’s late in the day so it may not be much. I walked on the bluff above the Pacific yesterday and noticed the contrast between ocean sound and desert silence. Nothing new about this but it stood out since I’d been in so much desert recently. Even with the week-long period since I left there the silence had remained a sensory presence ready to be “activated” upon exposure to ocean sound. It’s interesting that that could happen, especially when one of my primary responses when I return from a trip from anywhere is to the higher busyness level around home—an immediate response, not delayed a week like this one. I wonder if I unconsciously move into a different sensory realm when in such settings, once protected somehow from normal life? Anyway, I prefer the silence, but the sound has its place in ocean turbulence. The crash of waves against the rocky islets and their bursting into sprays and showers of droplets, sort of a watery and denser version of fireworks, pleases me; a different sight/sound combination than desert offers, obviously. For the next several weeks my Nature exposure will be almost exclusively ocean.
Photo by Georg Eiermann
