The sounds of the season

Boy, I love being self employed!

I'm sitting by a wood stove right now, and across the room, my Mom and Brothers are working on their own business.

It's a beautiful season, and it's filled with wondrous sounds. .

There's the holiday tunes. Timeless music, given a rock 'n roll twist, or a jazzy vibe, fills the air. But outside is where the real magic is. We often overlook it...Because it's darn cold out there!

But there's that muffled winter sound. Life is working hard at surviving, and the air chills and lends a seriousness to the bustle of the squirrels in the woods. The Juncos have arrived, busy along the side of the road, cheeping quietly as they pick up grit. The White-Throated Sparrows are also in town, rummaging through the leaves like old ladies at a yard sale. Cars clatter up the street, engines complaining about the tardiness of the sluggish oil to reach all components of the machine.

And then there's the silence. The space that allows these sounds to be. I especially like the silence of a snowfall. There's a hushed whispering as the snowflakes fall, almost as if they each carry a globe of stillness with them through the winter air, to land and accumulate into a mass of stillness.

Listen next time you're out and about. You'll like what you hear...or don't hear, for that matter.

Rock on!