Listen

Woke this morning to the sound of rain outside my bedroom window and that has me thinking about sounds. Evocative sounds, like for me one of my earliest memories is the sound of an old push mower - does anyone remember them, I wonder. The "Chuka-chuka" kind of noise they made while whirring over grass. Brings me right back to my childhood; mainly how I hated having to go to bed when it was still light out and I could hear kid's happy shouts far off. Then there's clapping. What is it about clapping that is so pleasing? I always like hearing live concerts on the radio just for the audience clapping afterwards. I was listening to a CBC program about a Museum of Sound which is gathering together sounds that are disappearing from our world; such as Train whistles.....not a sound we heard much out here on the coast but I remember them from a stay in rural Alberta when young. There's nothing to compare to that mournful call rolling across a night sky. I like the early spring bird sounds too. And the late night call of a kingfisher. The unearthly croak of a heron flying home to roost. Of course there's the ebb and sway of the ocean that is immensely meditative. And my grandparents old chiming clock .....wish I had it around still although I have the old pendulum clock of my Dad that he found in the attic of his drugstore in downtown Vancouver in 1956, I think but I don't wind it up because it makes my over-night guests crazy.
Anyway, sounds are kind of an aural painting, if you will.
Is there such a thing as total silence? There's quiet, of course, but an absolute cessation of noise of any sort?
Listen.......