A few years ago I saw the movie Into Great Silence. It was about a monastery in the French Alps where the monks only speak when they take their weekly walks outside the walls of the monastery. The movie had no voiceover narrative or soundtrack. It just followed the monks as they moved through the day picking up the sounds of doors creaking and of soft footsteps walking through the cloister. It was a remarkable display of peacefulness.
This past Sunday, the dogs and I drove out to the backcountry about 50 miles southwest of Albuquerque to walk through a tract of BLM land. Our plan was to check out a specific area, but when we started walking it was so quiet and wonderful that we ditched the plan and just walked.
The only sounds were the cheep, cheep, cheeps of small birds, the occasional flapping of wings, and the once in a while scurrying of a startled rabbit. There was some snow on the ground and a bit of mud. But not so muddy that it would suck your boots off. There was just enough moisture on the ground to soften the soil so that the sound of our footsteps was muffled.
We walked to a mesa top, and there we could walk for miles without interruption. The only motorized access to the mesa top is through a locked gate. And with no cattle running on top, there was no reason for a rancher to be there. And with the locked gate there was no way for gun enthusiasts, hunters, or off road vehicles to come on top to disturb the quiet.
Looking northwest from the mesa top toward Mount Taylor.
