Have you ever experienced silence? I mean true silence when there is no sound of birds or water or electricity or a refrigerator or an airplane? Real silence is impossible to find these days and I suddenly realize how much I miss it. Not long ago, Rob and I visited Tent Rocks National Park in New Mexico and I swear I have never heard silence the way we heard it there. It was 8 am; a sunny beautiful morning and we were the only two in the park. One bug was going about its business on gravel somewhere in front of us. We were walking through a slot canyon and there was no sound; total silence, peace and beauty. The bug leads the way and we could hear every movement of it. It felt comforting warm and refreshing, it felt like I came home. A warm blanket of silence surrounded us.

According to the website www.americansouthwest.net, “Tent Rocks or Kasha-Katuwe is a Keresan phrase meaning ‘white cliffs’, Keres being the traditional language of the pueblo tribes of northern New Mexico. The teepee-like formations cover a small area but are remarkable, unique in the Southwest – white, pinkish or grey spires, sharply conical in shape, lacking any covering vegetation and located 40 miles west of Santa Fe. “The rocks were formed by erosion of thick layers of pumice and tuff, and residual pieces form cap-rocks over the ash, which, being so soft, erodes rapidly downwards, creating the tall spires. The tuff is a remnant of explosive volcanic eruptions of between 6 and 7 million years ago, as are pieces of obsidian, a translucent, brown/black volcanic glass known locally as Apache Tears.”

Bright blue sky, enchanted rock formations shaped as castles built by the best architect ever—Nature, and there was this eternal symphony of silence played by the mountains shaped like pipes of a silent organ and deep blue dome of the sky of a silent cathedral. While surrendering to silence, your thoughts become as vivid as a charcoal drawing on a white piece of paper. Georgia O’Keeffe’s lines are as pronounced as a single melody surrounded by a total and complete silence—white paper. Expressivity comes from the truth of one thought, through one image, by one color, black on white, just like a shadow on a blank canvas. You do not need words there; you understand everything just by being there. You do not need to prove anything; you do not need to be anything you can just be.

Silence is majestic. Silence is the realm of infinite possibilities and everything is born from it. Any creative thought that changes the way we live, any music can be composed and any painting can be painted when there is silence and a white piece of paper. It is the beginning or a thought of a beginning or a remote possibility of everything at the same time. This is not Nothing, this is not a Minimalism; it is filled with infinite possibilities; it is more of Maximalizm or even better Possibilitieizm. Everything starts with you being a part of it, like a drop of water in the ocean, like one grain of sand on a sandy shore, like one snowflake in a snowstorm, like one breath of fresh morning air. Silence is a Blank Canvas; you can do anything with it. Paint it with your beautiful thoughts!