Sound...The Contrast of Beauty and Pain

Chachalaca...oh the screams it makes :)

Sound...who doesn't love sound? I have sat in my kayak in a lake on a calm day, closed my eyes and listened to the sound...of birds (oh so many different kinds) singing beautiful tunes. Or the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves on the trees. Haven't you sat by the ocean and listened to the sound of the waves come crashing, and if there are rocks the flow of water through them as it returns to the sea. The sound of music is able to bring such emotion like no other sound on earth. And who can walk past the sound of a baby cooing or children playing on the school ground. Are these not special or what?

Rick, Kayak day on the 'Crooked River'

Karen, enjoys a splash at Banderas Bay

Yet...each of these beautiful sounds can become those of pain. For a couple weeks one spring we endured the sound of the West-Mexican Chachaclaca. They are large birds that join together to create an amazing loud and ignoring chatter. Or how bout the change of wind or the ocean when found within a tropical storm. Even music that is of a genre or volume that doesn't agree with our taste can become a painful experience. And those cooing babies when they are unhappy, they surely lose the charm that we typically associate with them.

Noise Box...Closed (for a day)

The winter of 2014/15 is quite different from any that we've experienced in our thirty-five years of marriage. Simply because we find ourselves in Puerto Vallarta Mexico. And though I'm enjoying the water, the warmth, the lack of rain, still it is the sound, or lack of, that I'm missing.

Likely one of the greatest sounds that I enjoy is that of stillness. Here in PV that is nearly impossible. The traffic, the parties, the restaurants and bars that perform their musical sound at volumes that is muy loco. Oh how bout the bells that occur more than 30 times a day from the churches. Or the daily construction that is throughout this city. Then there is the whistle of the traffic police. And that's to say nothing of the dogs and roosters.

Children playing...Oh what beautiful sound

It's a big country...I'm pretty sure I will be able to find some stillness. You can count on it...I'm searching :) Actually, I have found it in the same places as in the U.S...found away from the city. Yesterday's drive to the 'Botanical Gardens' was one such place.

On this blog I'm adding two very different songs. The one by one of my all-time favorite groups 'Jars of Clay' is called 'He'. Though a sad song in many ways, I love how it ends...with children playing, as children should. The second song is from the 'Piano Guys'. Enjoy!

Might the sounds that you present to the world shout of the beauty and not the pain that only sound can bring. The Creator has provided sound for all to enjoy. Let's resonate that sound in 2015. Happy New Year!

...As a post script...I love the Mexican people and their culture. I'm writing about 'sound', not people in general.