MIND |

One Square Inch Of Silence – One Man’s Quest to Preserve Quiet.

“Silence is not the absence of something, but the presence of everything.”

Have you ever been to a place where it was truly silent? Where you didn’t hear the faint sound of a car, the buzzing of an electricity tower, conversations or even the sound of a plane overhead? Think about it, when was the last time you were truly surrounded by pure silence?

I have only experienced the sound of silence once in my conscious life, a place where the silence was almost deafening; it was so silent it was hard to describe the non sound because I was so use to hearing sound. This place was in the depth of the Victorian Alpine region, deep into a 181km ultra run and for a short moment I became conscious of my surrounds, I didn’t hear any trees rustling, no inserts, no birds it was just me and the dark sky and thick bush. It was my moment. My moment of clarity. A moment that is etched deep in my mind and soul.

I first heard about Gordon Hempton, an acoustic ecologist on the On Being with Krista Tippett podcast; Silence and the Presence of Everything the conversation, the sound scape, the quest and desire to save silence from the endangered species list was infectious. What a honour to take in the world through his ears, to feel his passion and to support a project that we should all be fighting to preserve; quiet.

The words in his book made me understand my unconscious awareness when it comes to the daily sounds I have become accustomed too; the sounds that are now a part of modern day inner city living. The sounds I inflect on my ears with ear pods at a level that may just be contributing to my loss of hearing. I have a greater understanding for the levels of sound, how trying to preserve quiet is a fight worth fighting hard for despite the bureaucracy of our national parks governed by policies and processes, not to mention convenience and economics.

If you are a naturalist, you will soon wish to become a acoustic ecologist, a highly recommended read and further education into the quest to preserve quiet.

To read more about this sanctuary for silence in our noisy landscape visit the One Square Inch website here.

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