Today I spent a couple of time out hours in my favorite place around here, the local park. For a change, I drove up "to the top" as they call it locally. I usually just park near the entrance and stay close, like I am prone to doing.
(BTW this is the park where I met quietone in person for the first and second time)
Today I was feeling restless. I made a stab at looking for a job first, then I bought some lunch and decided to spend the whole afternoon just relaxing. However, I never could really relax.
I was at first sitting in my lawn chair in my old spot trying to finish a book I was reading, even though I had my sketch pad, pencils, charcoal and even a sharpener.
(We won't discuss that I also had my notebook ready for writing another few pages of a writing contest I plan to enter.)
It was just so beautiful out today--clear blue skies, almost cool temperatures, birds of all kinds in all their languages........
My restlessness finally made me pack up and get ready to go home--it was just too much and I was feeling too lost. But I changed my direction at the last minute and drove up "to the point" where I have never gone by myself before. (scared of what? being kidnapped or something?)
When I got there--(my vehicle does go uphill, afterall!) I saw that no one was around, so I parked and listened to my engine tick down to a silence.
I couldn't believe the sense of peace that came with the sound of that silence.
I got out and wandered around the perimeters allowed, then crossed the line into the field nearby. From up there it looked liked a foreign country to me. Just a grassy field with some sort of farm equipment sticking up on the lower part of the field.
To the side was a path that might have been a 4-wheeler path or bike path that I didn't know about, but I wasn't brave enough to enter there........
So I just stood at the doorway and let my mind drift. Silence, except for a few chirps and a light breeze maybe.
Then all of a sudden I heard a weird creaking sound! Like an old wooden door opening slowly, then closing just as slowly.......
What the heck was that? I got a tad scared for a second, until I realized that it wasn't an animal, a man, or a beast.
It was just the trees talking......the sound of growth or destruction or maybe both. Maybe one of them was bending in the wind and about to fall.
Or maybe one of them was just saying, "Hello. I hear you. Can you hear me?"
I listened for awhile, then finally started up the old engine and braked my way back downhill, but even as I went, I didn't want to go. I wished I could stay there all day...today, tomorrow, and the next.
It won't be long before it will be impossible to drive up there because of snow and ice, but the trees will still be there--creaking and speaking.
The sad thing is that I am the one who won't be there to speak back.
