My regular readers may have noticed that I did not post last week. That’s because I was camping on the desert in Anza Borrego. For those who do not know this place, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is the largest state park in California. Named for the Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and the Spanish name borrego, or bighorn sheep, this area with five-hundred miles of dirt roads, 12 wilderness areas and miles of hiking trails provides visitors with a chance to see wildflowers (after spring rains), palm groves, sweeping vistas, and all manner of wildlife.
For me, the desert, with its spectacular sunrises and sunsets, is a very quiet place. This particular visit, my husband and I were the sole campers in the area of Palm Canyon where we chose to set up. The stillness was broken only by the sound of a covey of quail warning of the approach of a pair of coyotes and the scurrying footfalls of two kangaroo mice and their brood of quadruplets.
I tend not to write about religious themes, but in the quiet, God, Yahweh, the Creator is very close. I understand why the Israelites needed to wander in the desert for 40 years, why Jesus sought solace there and why Native Americans consider it a sacred place.
Some people are frightened by the idea of absolute quiet. We live in a world of noise – of cell phones ringing, TVs and radios blaring, cars honking, heavy machinery toiling to build roads and highways, dogs barking, children crying, people arguing.
Mo Rocca recently did a piece about noise (http://tinyurl.com/njsueh). He noted how the world keeps getting noisier; how we’re simply drowning in the din and ruckus of everyday life; and how the noise drowns out our power to listen to ourselves, simply making it impossible for us to hear ourselves think above the din.
Are you looking for a bit of quiet and solitude? Perhaps you can’t go to the desert today. But you can find everyday moments of peace and stillness. Take a walk in a nearby park or beach without your iPod; silence all your tech gadgets for an hour or two, watch the sun come up…or go down, work in the garden, sit in a comfortable chair and read a book.
How do you feel about being quiet? Where do you go?
One of the things I love best about where I live is the quiet. I’m still near the bustling of three major cities and I have access to all the modern conveniences but I’m just on the edge of where things become rural. It is quiet enough to listen to nature. The different seasons have difference kinds of silence. The sounds around my home remind me most of those just outside of Idyllwild.
Comment by pussreboots — November 10, 2009 @ 11:19 pm