The Sounds and the Silence

In Arctic Dreams, Barry Lopez suggests a way to experience a wild place " ...to approach with an uncalculating mind, with an attitude of regard. To try to sense the range and variety of its expression—its weather and colors and animals. And to be alert for its openings, for that moment when something sacred reveals itself within the mundane, and you know the land knows you are there.”  

On this June evening at Black Rock Forest, we each translated the mundane into the sacred in our own way, if at all. Yet this is very much the ethos of the Silent Walks. At our best, we let go of expectation and adopt an "attitude of regard." The still air let the water offer a perfect reflection of trees, laurel and sky. No breeze meant a clarion chorus of frogs, birds, and bugs--including a deafening gray tree frog at Aleck Meadow and later a delightful barred owl. Starting with evening sun, we had the whole walk to observe the fading light, the green deepening to black, the lost contours. At the end, June's strawberry moon rose in a haze of yellow, casting our shadows to guide us back. 

Thank you to everyone who walked and watched and listened and shared. A special thanks this month to Diana Mangaser, Director of Ann Street Gallery, for her enthusiastic support of linking this Silent Walk with my installation for the 1x1x1. It was wonderful to have some Ann Street friends on the walk!

The following are brief impressions shared by several walkers and photographic documentation. Click any image to enlarge, and check out the short video for sounds. To be sure, nothing compares to the consciously aesthetic experience of being part of the landscape.  Join us!

Entering the quiet zone

 

Silent walking, meditating on what? Footsteps, frogs, owls, silence....beauty

 

 Every step an intention, falling behind the head, two swallows dance above the water.

 

 

This Silent Walk was so peaceful. There were so many moments where I became very introspective, but the sounds of nature would bring me back to the present moment.
 

 

It was wonderful to just listen to all the noises. Usually, I am rushing when I am here, but this was an opportunity to just be.

 

Ethereality--an experience that was both other worldly and right in the moment. 

One symphony of sight and sound.

 

Humbling to hear the chorus of so many creatures' songs--they are all around--and we are insignificant.

 

 

A leaf breaks the mirror of water.
 

 

Reflections of flowers and trees, rippling

 

 

perfect lively silence

Lovely to watch the transition from evening to night and I saw a strawberry beneath the strawberry moon!

 

Silent, Lovers, Friends

I couldn't tear myself away from the moon! Loved seeing huge rocks split by tree roots.

 

Black Rock Forest is such a special place. Thank you to the many people who work hard to make it the hallmark of advancing scientific understanding of the natural world through research, education, and conservation. My particular thanks to Brienne Cliadakis, Susanne Vondrak, and Aaron Culotta for their support of the Silent Walks.

Become a friend of the forest!

 

Special thanks to Emmett Munterich, the photographer for this month's walk.