Paulina
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3812
Registered: 8-31-2002
Location: BCN
Member Is Offline
|
|
And what of the sounds of Baja?
This is being re-posted at the request of Baja Bernie, something I wrote in 2007. Thank you Bernie for reminding me of the simple things, they mean
the most.
And what of the sounds of.... the stars, and the moon.
When my son was three years old, he and I spent our first of many summers in Bahia, just the two of us. Our evening tradition was to sit together on
one lounge chair, his head resting on my chest as he sat in my lap.
The chores had been done, dinner long over, questions and short discussions of our day concluded, leaving the campfire to be the only light and sound
to occupy the evening before going to bed.
One night as we sat there watching the fire, the bugs flying in attracted to the light, occasionally looking up at the stars we both noticed one star
in particular that seemed a bit bigger than the rest. It was directly over the top of Horsehead Island and the oddest thing about it was that it kept
getting bigger and seemed to be advancing like a train's headlight through a tunnel.
I could feel his body start to tense, his shoulders and head shrink lower and lower, shrinking into my body as he and I watched this shooting star as
it seemed to be coming straight at us.
What should have been a quiet awe inspiring moment beneath the moon, turned into the loudest shriek to startle the desert awake as my boy threw up his
arms and yelled, "MOM! DUCK!!!!"
The shooting star soared above our heads, I'm sure millions of miles away from singeing our hair, but not to the eyes and imagination of my son.
As it passed I turned to watch it burn out of sight behind the mountains to the west as Connor hid his eyes behind his hands, sure that the falling
star was going to land right in our lounge chair and ruin our evening.
I started to laugh. He didn't understand my reaction to what was an almost life and death experience in his young mind.
The sounds of the stars and the moon that night were something that I shall hear in my memory for a long time.
P<*)))><
\"Well behaved women rarely make history.\" Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
|
|
|
Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
Member Is Offline
Mood: Optimistic
|
|
Excellent! Brava, Paulina! Reading that, I was ducking, too.
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
|
|
|
24baja
Senior Nomad
Posts: 952
Registered: 2-3-2009
Location: Grants Pass Oregon/Bahia de Los Angeles
Member Is Offline
Mood: Wishing we were in BOLA
|
|
Paulina that is an awesome memory. The sounds for me, well it is the whoosh of the whale hunting in LA Bay, the call of the osprey, the song of the
coyotes and the stillness at night. How I long for BOLA!
|
|
|
Islandbuilder
Senior Nomad
Posts: 555
Registered: 11-9-2011
Location: nob
Member Is Offline
Mood: bewildered
|
|
Beautifully written!
Have you ever HEARD a shooting star? A soft sizzling sound, followed by the "boom" as it explodes from the heat and strain of gravity.
|
|
|
Natalie Ann
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2819
Registered: 8-22-2003
Location: Berkeley
Member Is Offline
|
|
Thanks for sharing this sweet and funny memory, Paulina.
Kids and Baja - two of the best things to happen in life.
nena
Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.
.....Oscar Wilde
|
|
|
Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8088
Registered: 7-12-2004
Location: Bahia Asuncion
Member Is Offline
|
|
Kids and baja go together.
I see he's inherited your sense of imagination, Paulina.
|
|
|
Pompano
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8194
Registered: 11-14-2004
Location: Bay of Conception and Up North
Member Is Offline
Mood: Optimistic
|
|
Paulina..
You brought back a great childhood memory. When I was about 5 or 6, I was sleeping under the moon and stars on a camping trip with my two older
brothers. Too nice to sleep in the tent, we laid our bedrolls outside to stare up at the heavens.
It was a very bright night and we could see some fluffy clouds drifting by.
Brother Dave said to me, "See those clouds up there? They're one thousand miles away.. and going about a thousand miles an hour, too."
Wow!...I never knew THAT before. Big brothers are always good for solid camping info.
I do what the voices in my tackle box tell me.
|
|
|
vgabndo
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3461
Registered: 12-8-2003
Location: Mt. Shasta, CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Checking-off my bucket list.
|
|
I think that the frequency of visible meteorites is the same in Baja as in Bakersdiego. It is the lack of 24/7 noise and light here in the mountains
and there in the desert that allows us to be part of that constant light show which is lost to those in the megalopolis.
I remember distinctly to this moment the way the goose bumps rose when one night in the desert the canyon wall was suddenly illuminated as if by an
arc welder followed in a few seconds by the long and trailing sound of thunder.
For a naked ape, that was a visceral connection to an explained element of a mysterious cosmos.
Lots of folks circle-up, season permitting, to bundle in the parking lot of the old Ski Shasta at 8,000 ft. to watch the various meteor showers as we
have some light pollution even in a town of 3500.
Undoubtedly, there are people who cannot afford to give the anchor of sanity even the slightest tug. Sam Harris
"The situation is far too dire for pessimism."
Bill Kauth
Carl Sagan said, "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
PEACE, LOVE AND FISH TACOS
|
|
|
Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8088
Registered: 7-12-2004
Location: Bahia Asuncion
Member Is Offline
|
|
The best star gazing I ever had in baja was at 5 years ago at Calamajue.
It was August and the temperatures were unbearable. There was no way to sleep in the camper. So we took the sheets and laid them on the beach.
The stars were overwhelming. Extended from one side of your head to the other. There was no avoiding them. Everywhere you looked they reached into the
dark unknown. I just remember laying there transfixed, unable to do anything other than surrender to it all. It was beyond comprehension. There was no
way to understand it and attempts at doing so just diminished it all. I just let myself go.
Even now I'm having a hard time explaining how it was. It was a spiritual experience.
|
|
|
Baja Bernie
`Normal` Nomad Correspondent
Posts: 2962
Registered: 8-31-2003
Location: Sunset Beach
Member Is Offline
Mood: Just dancing through life
|
|
Pauline
Thank you so much! It was even better the second time...
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
|
|
|
Ken Bondy
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3326
Registered: 12-13-2002
Member Is Offline
Mood: Mellow
|
|
Beautiful story Paulina, reminded me of lying on the sand watching the stars with my kids at San Francisquito. Thanks!!!
carpe diem!
|
|
|
Baja Bernie
`Normal` Nomad Correspondent
Posts: 2962
Registered: 8-31-2003
Location: Sunset Beach
Member Is Offline
Mood: Just dancing through life
|
|
Just another bump bcause I enjoy reading it so much
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
|
|
|
805gregg
Super Nomad
Posts: 1344
Registered: 5-21-2006
Location: Ojai, Ca
Member Is Offline
|
|
The silence is the best part.
[Edited on 1-9-2012 by 805gregg]
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
