The Song of Silence

Summer begins! The desert is verdant, the creek is teeming with wildlife and cumulonimbi dance in the sky as she, the desert, displays such wonderful music. Ahh, I sit here beaming with the Sun yet I am under the protection of a Cottonwood's shade. Sweet bliss comes with the breeze! You see, this is the time of the year when the wisdom of the Chihuahuan Desert stands her tallest and when I am placed at my humblest.

Listen, she tells me.
It is silence that she sings.

That’s one of the greatest things about being a deaf person. You don’t have to struggle in order to receive such lovely melodies that play before the eyes and the soul. You know? The voiceless sing greatest when the all the world is silent. The Ocotillos sway in the wind like the bow of a fiddler playing such elegant notes. The Creosote bushes shake like the rhythm of maracas while a sparrow passes overhead in a flight pattern that resembles the song of a flute and still she, our beloved desert, sings when the wind ceases. The trickle of Terlingua creek flows with a gentle hum and the various colors of rock add a unique-ness to the music. The mountains moan behind the haze of the heat whilst vultures and hawks patrol the skies. All is a part of the song.

Listen, she reminds me.
This is the Song of Silence

It is also the time of the year when the heat becomes extremely unbearable for the thick blooded and thus they fly north to the cooler climes. Of course, with such a phenomenon, the locals of Terlingua are able to better appreciate her music.

No more trains of river runner vans going up and down the road.
No more herds of Harley Hogs in their dead cow clothes.
No more busloads of tourists from a foreign land.
No more private planes at the airstrip.

It is Summer!

Yeah, it is that time of the year and I’m rather glad it is here. It is that time, my cue, to return to the platform and stand up for what I believe in as Deaf Jeff. It is that time to tell my story, to tell our story, and ultimately: The Song of Silence.