I heard an interview titled “The Last Quiet Places” with Gordon Hempton this past Sunday, May 13th on NPR.  He is an acoustic ecologist and the author of “One Square Inch of Silence: One Man’s Quest to Preserve Quiet.”  The interview was a fascinating listen about the power of quiet and natural sounds.  Hempton says that silence is an endangered species. He defines real quiet as presence — not an absence of sound, but an absence of noise. The Earth, as he knows it, is a “solar-powered jukebox.” Quiet is a “think tank of the soul.”

The discussion included multiple sound clips of nature, each of which took me back to reminiscing about the Smokies.  The sounds of water are always soothing to my soul, but I never thought about this through the lens of the absence of noise (cars, humans, machinery, productivity, technology, …).  Also, one beauty of listening to nature is that it virtually demands I be in the moment; not planning, not focused on accomplishments or regrets or what I could/should be doing.  Secondly, it reminds me more than ever of the power of God and the fact that each day is a complete GIFT from Him.

With these thoughts in mind, here is one more image from the splendor of the Smoky Mountains, accompanied by the actual sound of being there.  Sit back for 30 seconds and listen to one of the last quiet places.

click the Audio below and adjust your sound if necessary

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Little River, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

2 Responses to “The Last Quiet Places”