Tags
costa rica, Guayaquil Botanical Garden, Guayaquill Malacon, Howler Monkeys, Jake's Sunday Post Challenge Silence, Lisa Brunetti, NATURE, PENCIL DRAWINGS, Playa San Miguel Costa Rica, Silence, Solitude
Guayaquil (Ecuador) Botanical Gardens/Malecon
Ah! To bask in silence! A serene setting wraps its loving arms around us and cocoons us in delicious silence! Libraries offer comforting slices of silence, as do museums; parks and botanical gardens provide visual balms for the soul and reconnect us with nature. Silence allows our minds to grow quiet, and our senses awaken.
For Jake’s Sunday Post Challenge of “Silence,” here is an essay that I wrote when I lived “immersed in nature” in Costa Rica. Many days often passed before I ventured into the nearby pueblito; I loved the flora and fauna of that area!
Dawn breaks over Playa San Miguel, Costa Rica
SILENCE (2001)
I cherish dawn; I embrace it, or rather it embraces me. Gone is yesterday’s fatigue, and I awaken with renewed faith and trust and hope. My expectations of the day float with eagerness, yet a patient calm grounds me.
Scanning the vista, I smile. Moving only my eyes, I drink in the surroundings. My heart overflows with love for the birds that flit happily from tree to tree. A variable seedeater hangs upside down and breakfasts on minute red seeds. A trogon swoops precariously nearby as if to say, “Good morning to you.”
Mot-Mots, flaunting their iridescent coloring, entertain me as they wag their fly-swatter tails. Masked tityras, with their startling white housecoats, busy themselves further away. Ground cuckoos,sporting Egyptianesque facial markings, prowl the landscape.
This morning the hummingbirds are strangely absent. If I’m lucky, a pair of aracaris will come for a brief visit. I stop and scan the Pacific. A white vessel heads north on the edge of the horizon on a Winslow Homer-colored sea. A riptide near the beach slices the blue with its warning contrast of color.
Far-away howler monkeys roar and croup and announce their claim to the rain forest. Another troop replies with challenging egotism. I listen intently for “my troop” which is silent this morning. A quail answers instead.
Butterflies begin to decorate the lower airspace. Still drowsy from sleep, they move with erratic slowness. From a pasture below, a bull punctuates the growing cacophony as if to say, “Don’t forget about me down here.” I smile, “No. You are an important icon to the Guanacaste landscape.”
Conversation would be an intrusion, and I reflect on the souls that could sit with me in comfortable silence.
Pencil 24″ x 36″
Sometimes silence is the best conversation.
Total Immersion in the Garden of Eden
This morning my conversation is with God.
Z
beautiful….. no pictures needed …though I enjoyed them immensely…, the words brought to mind my own moments of silence..thank you for sharing.
Muchas gracias! Nature is so very important to me! Z
I do miss this place. It *is* a good place to be quiet and listen in, isn’t it? It is just after 6 this morning and I have opened my window to listen to the rain. (We are just coming out of a too long drought.) I sit quietly and listen to the birds and the drops as they fall… If I try hard enough I might almost imagine I was there…
Lisa, thank you for sharing your lovely photographs and words. They calm me.
~ Lynda
PS: My favorite bird to hear was the bell bird. We have nothing that even remotely comes close to that distinctive call.
Ahhh! Thanks for sharing! I can almost smell that unique aroma of the parched landscape soaking in those first drops of rain! I’m glad you’re receiving some of that life-giving lluvia!
Si, Costa Rica’s beauty is amazing; I have often said if I could move those 6 hectares of heaven to the river here in Ecuador, I would never leave the property! (And it’s most likely my destiny to keep rolling!)
I am so glad that this gave you a wonderful start to your day!
Thank you so much for your kind remarks!
Lisa
After coming off of a road trip last night and looking around at all that has to be done( that endless list) this post is calming, timely.and beautifully expressed. Photos are lovely but your pencil drawing reflects your impressions of silence….and taking the time to capture it, artistically.
Muchas gracias! Painting has always been ‘work,’ but pencil is always blissfully without effort. I’m glad that the images and drawing gave you a brief respite from your day!
Z
There is nothing like the experience you describe. Being in “one good place”, free to simply “be” in the midst of a world that really cares nothing or human presence, is immensely satisfying.
I do find it ironic that so many people in this country fly hither and yon seeking silence, when they could create small islands of it for themselves. Quit Facebook, throw out the tv, turn off the radio and allow music to become music again, rather than background noise. It’s possible!
“Create small islands of it (silence) for themselves.”
I enjoy your comments and posts so much! I agree with you totally! I’ve not had a television for a dozen years and also detest telephones! Music is very important to me, though now when there are no distracting sounds from ‘man’s world,’ i prefer to drink in nature’s own music!
Thanks amiga! Z
as always enjoy your eloquent words/thoughts which like your art come from your heart. thanks Lisa.
love
gwen
Thank you, dear Gwen!
Excellent post my friend thanks for sharing :)
Thank you so much; great topic! z