Can you hear the wind?

An Audio Experience By Oliver Smuhar

Headphone Recommended




Bailey tells his little brother, Xanda a story because he is having trouble sleeping. It’s a windy night. The campfires in the Town of Tents seem rather angry.

By Oliver Smuhar

14 November 2019


“Can you hear the wind?... Would you like to know where it comes from? Why the birds sing under it's flow? How the sound push and pulls? Like water!... Yes water. That's where it starts."

Under the sprinkle of water, the growl of a bear, like myself, there’s the sound of a piano. Tweedle dee and tweeted dum, the music becomes louder the further you search. They say the gods invented music, but the spirits perfected the performance... Sorry, I went on a tangent. Moving on.

Can you hear the chimes? They say on a hot day, if they ring too loudly there could be a fire! But who do we blame? Ourselves? The oldies? The ones in charge in the Central City where what is right may be wrong and where bells ring. There are crowds in those places, barely any tree or chimes.

Oh a train. Do you want to get on? We can go anywhere you’d like. To a crowd, to a forest and a little area where everything is completely silent!

But where did the fun go? The laughing, the cheers and clings of drinks as we waste our lives away. That’s what makes the wind! Happy smiles, the smell of the ocean, that sensation you get when your family is together in the Celebration Season.

Oh, sorry! I got side tracked. Back to the piano. Who is playing such a magnificent tune. Is that a guitar? A saxophone? Oh, but no one’s here. Who—Who was playing such tunes?

See, I like the sounds of silence. It’s rather kind, for lack of a better word... Do you hear it... Ah, beautiful. There’s no reason to be scared of the wind! Of what it can do? Remember, life is boring. It can hurt like hell if you’re on the wrong side of it! But if you take a moment to listen to the things around you — and I’m not suggesting that you live in the moment. Just relax.

There are man made things in this world, planes, trains and automobiles, whether big or small.

There are birds and there are fireflies, butterflies as well.

There’s the sound the grass makes beneath your feet, the sound of water splitting apart, that comfy feeling you get when you lay in bed with someone you love!

And at the piano under the drops of water where the wind was born. Do you think the world knew what it was? And what if it blows too hard! On a hot summer's day. That’d be a catastrophe. A fire emerged once. The leaders of the world were too afraid to face it, laughing while the world burnt down.

But we, as a community, remembered where the wind was from. Houses burnt down. Lives were lost and tears were shed. It’s the past now. Listen for the future. Can you hear it?

Sounds like laughing, doesn’t it. Joy and a good moment. But there are bad ones too. The loss of a loved one, some inner defect that changes how we live, maybe even just one crappy day when the rain was too hard. But that’s the future now. What do you hear?

The silence?

My voice?

How you’re breathing. That’s where the wind comes from. From here and from now. No matter if the piano is played by you, by me, by the past or the future, the wind is here with us.

And when it stops. There’s nothing to be afraid of.

So what do you hear?...”