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The Sunset |
| Written by Gregg | |
| Thursday, 21 August 2008 | |
I sat in the middle of the room and listened. I heard many extraordinary sounds that I would normally shrug off as mundane: Birds singing, dogs barking, cars whooshing by. They all sounded alive and happy. Each sound was content as it abruptly came into existence and gradually faded away. Eventually, I stopped naming the sounds' sources and heard only the sounds by themselves. There were no birds, no dogs, no cars, no playful children, no angry mothers. Only chirps, yelps, bumps, whooshes, bangs and thumps. Each of them was content to simply come in and fade out. There was one sound that intrigued me more than any other. It was by far the most majestic sound I had ever heard. I had been hearing it all my life but never noticed it. It was the sound of silence. Silence lay behind all the other sounds. All other sounds came into existence from the silence-the mother of all sound-and they all faded back into silence. There were a few long stretches of time in which no other sound disturbed its mother. "How are you?" I asked the mother of sound. It did not answer. I laughed at myself. It started as a chuckle and ended in an uproar. The irony! I asked silence a question and expected a response! I opened my eyes. I was startled because I forgot that I had closed them. I had been listening for an hour or two. Or perhaps 12 hours. I couldn't tell. I looked around the room and saw that objects were happy too. I grew jealous of the grandfather clock, the television set, the old sofa, even the crumpled papers sitting in the waste basket. They were all content. They had nothing to strive for, nothing to gain, and nothing to be disappointed about. They were content just to be. I started to laugh again. It started as a chuckle and ended in an uproar. I called all these things mine and I always wanted more. It was absurd to think that anything could actually belong to anybody. I thanked the walls for their hospitality. I spotted a piece of paper on the table which I had forgotten about. I picked it up and looked at it. It was a poem-or an attempt at poetry-I wrote a day or two, maybe even a year previous. I stared at it for a period of time somewhere between half a minute and an hour. I stared at the paper and forgot what else I was supposed to do. Then I realized that I was supposed to read it. I looked at the words but could not bring myself to read. I had forgotten how to do it. Slowly, I managed to read the first line:
Come with me into this place
I read the words but could not make sense of them. I read the line five or ten times-or maybe 100-before I comprehended the message it was trying to convey to me. Over the course of an hour or two, or perhaps 12, I managed to read the entire poem in the same manner:
Come with me into this place Those of you in search of grace It is the void which you seek Come inside and take a peek
You must come alone But with many friends For inside yourself You must make amends
Once you have stepped inside Be prepared for the coming tide Only silence enters here Be still and take it without fear
Breathe deep and slow with all your might And what was taken for granted will come to light No structure or time may enter here Be still and take it without fear
Silence is the place where you begin to calm The endless ripples of thought and qualm Only then will two become one You are sure to see it before you are done
Upon finishing, I thanked my previous self for the entertainment and put the sheet of paper back on the table. I suddenly became aware of the presence of a stranger. I spun around as fast as I could to see if there was someone there. There was no one to be seen. I began to search my house to find the stranger whose presence I felt. I did not search frantically. There was no need. I wasn't afraid. I was curious. I tried to contemplate why anyone else would be in my house. I could not think of anything. I checked and rechecked every room in the house for an hour or two. Or perhaps 12. After a while I took a break from searching and looked out the window. The sun was setting and the sky was ablaze. The sun was a half circle resting on the horizon. It emitted a crown of fiery red extending in all directions. Red faded into yellow, which faded into blue, which faded into the dark of the coming night. All the colors danced around each other in celebration, bidding the day farewell. Yellow clouds morphed and rippled as rays of fire struck them and scattered in all directions. I had seen many sunsets exactly like this before, but none of them looked quite like this one. Whilst staring into the sunset a realization struck me. I recognized the presence that I felt. It wasn't a stranger at all. In fact, it was someone I knew-or thought I knew-very well. It was myself. "Who are you?" I asked myself. "Who wants to know?" he answered. Copyright 2008 Gregg |
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