Subtle sounds

As I was walking to work yesterday, as I often do, the air was crisp and cool. It being January that wasn't unexpected. The trees are bare and show darkly against a grey sky. Greensboro isn't a very busy place early in the morning, and there are few cars and traffic to disturb the peace of the dawn. Oh we have rush hour alright, lasts a good fifteen to twenty minutes sometimes. As I was walking along the birds were singing their sunrise sonata. I've always enjoyed the sounds of the birds in the early morning. Yesterday morning I noticed something different. For a few seconds I couldn't quite put my finger on just what it was. Then it came to me. In the cold ,crisp air, with the trees stripped bare there was a bit of an echo. But, not really an echo more like a hollow sound. Umm, the sound of January is " hollow. " I suppose you could say winter is hollow. It is a different sound. I expect in the spring, when the leaves return to the trees that will change. The world will become a bit muffled again.
This was just another of those little things that I have noticed over the years. Most of them I have noticed in the last few years, maybe that is because I have been paying more attention. Advancing years will do that for a man. It also makes me think about my ancestors and how their world may have sounded. Growing up on Long Island, around the water, I know those sounds well. The sound of the surf and the squawk of the gulls. When I was young wooden boats were still around and they make their own creaking sounds as they rise and fall with the waves. I found it to be a soothing sound. I know the harsh clank of the rigging against a sailboat's mast. In the woods behind my home the whip"o"  will could be heard and the caty-dids. On clear cold winter nights you would hear an occasional tree branch snap in the darkness, followed by silence. The wind howls in winter but just blows in summer.
I have never been to the mountains for an extended stay. It must be a wonderful thing to roam through the mountains, void of civilization. With no sounds but those that nature provides. Surely that is the influence the native americans felt that inspired their flute playing. Those flutes have a hollow and eerie sound to them, almost a whisper from the Gods. That is a bit of a romantic notion I suppose but a valid one. I wonder too what sounds would be heard on the open plains ?
Modern man sure has done his best to drown out the sounds of nature, and, I believe to our detriment. My walk to work  takes about ten minutes. Down a gentle slope and then up over the river. The river always pleases me in the morning light. Some days I can see the geese or ducks swimming along. On other days the river is just still, a mirror reflecting the trees along the bank. Serene is the word that best describes it. There are days I make the walk with very few cars interrupting and those days are the best.
I am fortunate to live and work here in Greensboro. In some ways it is like living just a few years behind. That is only understood by those that have been a few years back, if you know what I  mean. It was much the same way when I was growing up. Always a few years behind, but happy and content. I can see Greensboro " catching " up and I view it with sorrow. Well, all one can do is enjoy what you have, when you have it. That is a little secret that it takes time to understand. All things change with time. My path has brought me to Greensboro and all is well in the world.
I will finish with this statement. I do not always feel like walking to work but on the days I do, it is wonderful. I highly recommend it.