Discovering Absolute Silence
I was on a bike ride the other morning after a very long day before with friends for one of our friends birthdays. It was a very rough start to the day, and I decided that i was going to head out for a short 10 mile bike ride to shake off the day prior. I decided to turn the 10 mile ride into a 30 mile ride to see the entrance of Box Canyon, Joshua Tree, that i had been thinking about riding to for a little while and hadn’t pulled the trigger.
The ride over to Box Canyon is no easy feat. The route that I had chosen runs through busy roads, and up a busy highway with not much room on the shoulder before entering the busy road with trucks passing by. One way to wake you up from a daze the day after a day out drinking with friends. Once I got to the city of Mecca and crossed a railroad track, the road seemed quieter, as did life. As I got further out from civilization, and crossed a couple of farms, I started on the road into Box Canyon, and one that changed my perspective on peace and set my week up for success. As I passed the mile marker that I had set for myself, I started to climb into a beautiful canyon that I had only observed from afar before on the other side of the valley. The road narrowed, the lines blurred, and the cars almost ceased to exist all within one mile, within one long turn. That long turn into and up Box Canyon, was like leaving the noisy world I know behind and entering what felt like a state of purgatory, waiting to find out of I get into heaven or not. I passed a couple of tourists, who seemed to be in the lobby for purgatory as well, with distant smiles on their faces, or they were just really stoned and happy to be anywhere, either way they were pleasant to pass. Then as I continued on, there was a truck a little ways from my stoner passerbys, with a trailer attached to it and not a peep to be heard. Felt like a couple who had maybe been in purgatory for a little while now and was almost as peaceful as the place itself seemed to be.
I kept on cycling for a little while longer with nothing but the sound of my chain going around my chain ring, until I looked back and saw another cyclist coming up behind me. For a while he didn’t pass, and I was left to the slight clink of my chain circling the ring, and my breath in my chest. Then the moment came where the other cyclist came up next to me, and slowly began to pass, with no urgency, other than just being faster than me. He slowly went off into the distance and up into the canyon and out of sight. The road twisted ahead, on a steady incline. The sky was what one might consider perfectly blue. One that a painter would paint, and a photographer would have to edit in if they were anywhere other than the spot that I was cycling right there, in this purgatory, my purgatory. To my left and right stood large rock walls that looked more like smooth rolling balls of caramel ice cream clashing with each other, with little hardened caramel rocks in between with some red woven throughout more flattened pieces. What was so nice about this place, was the absolute, dead, silence. A silence one may experience deep in a forest right after a lush snowfall, but not many other places. No birds chirping, or car engines rolling aside from the rare driver passing by to whatever heaven is on the other end. There were no other humans talking anywhere around. No animals chattering amongst each other. It was perfect, silence.
I got off my bicycle, and started to walk along the dirt and sand off the road, up against the ice cream rock wall, where I rested my bike on a smaller sand wall, and took a seat. In this seated position, I took two long deep breaths, and closed my eyes, to rest in complete, total peace, in my purgatory to address my thoughts within before finding out when I’d leave.
The end.
