Day 6 - Gasagasa*



December 15, 2014

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70th year. Each day I will find a gift the day brings, write about it and illustrate it.)

The older I get, the more I realize how sound affects me both positively and negatively. When I taught middle school, just before lunch the kids opened their lockers and banged them shut. As I walked down the hall to these sounds, it felt like everything in my body was literally shattering.

One time after an especially difficult day teaching, I was driving home with my nerves on edge, tuned to a radio station that was playing Sequentia’s album, Vox Ilberica II, Codex Las Huelgas,  Music From The Royal Convent Of Las Huelgas De Burgos (13th - 14th Cent.) I knew nothing of this music at the time except that it calmed me considerably in the four miles home during rush hour—so much so that as soon as I got home, I called the station for more information. This was before present-day speedy Internet and it took me a while to find it where I bought the album in the now defunct Borders.

My present environment has sometimes affected me negatively too…like when the kid next door rode his motorbike up and down the street right outside my window or when husband David was watching hours of football and the constant crowd noises annoyingly crept into my space.

I have learned over the years which sounds stroke my inner spirit and to seek them out…sounds like moving water (unless it is a dripping faucet). Today I indulged in another one of these special sounds—footsteps crunching brittle fallen leaves. I walked off the hard path to crackle leaves on the path less traveled and that made all the difference in the rest of my day.

Today’s gift was the sound of my feet crunching dry autumn leaves. 

* gasagasa - Japanese word for the sound of walking through leaves.
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You can read my other posts on this project here:

2 comments:

  1. The sounds around me can affect my mood as well, so I really could relate to this post, Bonnie! Here's to more crunching leaves in life!

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