Have you ever been lucky enough to just sit on a log and listen to the whisper of

[Atticus]

big fluffy snowflake's falling in a hardwood forest? It is an experience that is difficult to describe.

At first, as you still yourself and let your breathing become soft and slow, you may question your own senses: "Am I really HEARING snowflakes?" But, soon you'll find yourself smiling as you realize you are savoring a beautiful---wonderful!---sound very very few will ever take the time to notice.

And, if you are inclined to thoughtful introspection, you just may wonder what other quiet joys you have been "too busy" to experience.


May the peace and love of this beautiful season cling to all of us as a new year begins.

[highplainsdem]

1. Yes, on my grandfather's farm. It's a lovely sound.

[calimary]

2. I noticed something similar awhile ago, after we moved to Oregon.

Quiet night, late, and my husband wanted to go for a short drive.

When we got back and stepped out of the car, I noticed this low-level “din” around me. When we lived in L.A. it was the low-level noise of constant freeway traffic - even throughout the wee hours. But up here, I realized it was the sound of many little leaves jostled by breezes through the many big tall trees up here. A quiet roar!

[RussellCattle]

3. Thank you so much. What an amazing suggestion. I think that I do stop and listen....

....to other things during the day, rain on the roof this morning, birds congregating in the neighbors hedge in the evening and raising a racket. But I've never taken the time to have your experience. I've in the Pacific Northwest, quiet forests nearby and on Christmas Eve we had snowflakes the size of quarters falling. Can't wait for the next time. Thanks again.

[lucca18]

4. Beautiful! Thank you for sharing.❤️

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
Albert Einstein

[patphil]

5. Yes, I have heard the snowfall.

Usually at night when the rest of the world is silent, and I'm outside in the snow. The silence gives way to the sound of the snow as it hits the earth. There is no other sound like it.
It give one a sense of inner peace.

[Bayard]

6. Its wonderful, isn't it?

I also like to deeply inhale the scent of pine or cedar trees, and wet leaves. Listen to a soft rain on our metal roof, or the sound of geese heading south for the winter--faint, and then louder as they fly directly overhead.

Nature is miraculous for those who take the time to appreciate it.

[OverBurn]

7. Yes, but it's been 40 years. I remember though.

[paleotn]

8. Yes.

It's a pleasure being somewhere quiet enough that you can hear the fall of snowflakes through the woods.

[CaptainTruth]

9. Yes, I have been lucky enough to experience that! It's wonderful.

It reminded me of being in a good recording studio, one where all outside sound & vibration is practically eliminated, by yourself, with the lights turned out.

In a room that's that quiet the only thing you hear is your heart beating & blood surging through your veins. For me, after a couple minutes it became a bit disconcerting!

[LakeArenal]

10. Yes. Then, watching a deer walk through the woods in the snow. Silent and beautiful.

[erronis]

11. Fortunately I live in a very rural, wooded, mountainous state (VT)

I love going out into the fields, wooded trails and listening to the murmurings of nature.

However I am always amazed at how there is almost always some human-made noise in the background. It may be jets overhead, trucks rumbling on a hiway around 3 miles away, sometimes a chainsaw or a hunter's rifle.

It takes some personal filtering to not hear these sounds, and of course our own breathing and heartbeats. Well worth learning how to do so.

Thanks for all your postings Atticus. I always learn from them.

[kiri]

14. hear the sound of your own blood coursing through your ear

When in Antarctica, away from camps and on windless days, it is so quiet that you can hear the sound of your own blood coursing through your ear. You verify this by marking it against your pulse. I was never sure whether the sound came from your ear drum or the capillaries in the inner ear.

I made many experiments, plugging one ear or the other, held my breath, tilted my head just to further the experience.

I only experienced this again a few hundred miles from the North Pole on Ellesmere Island, near Perry's Cairn, a few miles from Alert, NWT. And then briefly in the high Himalayas, but it was usually too windy and too many aircraft.

[electric_blue68]

12. Sounds very relaxing...

Here in big ole NYC I love to hear the sparrows.
When I lived in Brooklyn we had bluejays, mourning doves (such a soft sound), and I learned to recognize the cardinal!

I always look atcthe sky and have seen and gotten some beautiful cloud, and sunset photos. 💖

While I won't hear snow - I love when it's a drier snow and the snowflakes land on my coat either singly or in of clumps of 3, 4, 5 flakes tangled in each other's crystal structures at different angles!
You can really see them! 💖❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️
_________________

One of my most glorious nature experiences was an opposite kind -I was sleeping out in Monument Valley (sleeping bag) in July.
A friend and I drove there - I woke up around 3AM, the moon had set, and The Milky Way arced above us. I'd seen it as a kid on New England vacations, but here there was so much more sky to see it strechted out.

[Silver Gaia]

13. Yes.

I lived in the country for 20 years, and 10 of those years were in remote forested areas. I remember it well. There is an unparalleled serenity to the experience. Thank you for reminding me.

[Biophilic]

15. Yes, I had forgotten. It was along time ago. I had forgotten. It was magic. Thank you.