The Annex, Toronto
Sounds
Perhaps it’s the season, winter,
that permits sounds to be more crisp and distinct. Whether inside or outside,
noises subtle or loud had somehow got my attention today. Thank God for noise,
sweet or sour.
Practically every hour the train
just north of our temple/ashram shakes the window panes ever so lightly and
with its companion is the gritty noise of its wheels gripping against the
tracks.
You’d be lucky to hear the
choo-choo whistle. While I sat, momentarily at a bench near those tracks, I
overheard one pedestrian to another say, “This train’s a mile long.” I think he
was right. It made that commonly unnoticed reverberation which seemed to last
forever.
On this night walk I picked up
the sound of a person’s shovel scraping hard snow. One motorist couldn’t help
himself with wheels spinning against the frictionless ice. The sound was
somewhat like the cay of a baby elephant or baby dinosaur in distress. Then I
heard and saw a walker attempt to climb over a snow bank that, with every step,
sounded like a crunch-crunch, like the cousin to Vijay’s teeth clamping down on
an Indian poppadom over suppertime in the ashrams eating room.
There was also the temple-room’s
radiator’s release of steam. It resembles a rattle snake’s hiss. Finally, our kirtan
with drum, harmonium, and tambourine framed off the day. Not spontaneous like
other sounds of the day, this noise, or music, is routinely projected each
evening through the ether. Someday we’ll hear Krishna’s flute.
May the Source be with you!
3 km
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