Silent Song

I was upstate with friends, spending the day in silence. 
No technology. No distractions. Just listening.
In the river. By the fireplace. The day steeped in nature.
It was my first time doing something like this. 

Theo, Moon, and I went on a walk together. 

The sun was beaming. The air felt crisp and gentle. Everything seemed a little louder because we weren’t.

Then suddenly, we were caught in a downpour. 
We heard rain. But it wasn’t water that hit the ground.
It was leaves. 

There was no wind. 
The forest was still. 
And yet, from just a small family of trees above us, the leaves suddenly poured down. 
Only there. Only onto us. All at once.

They were flush with a gradient of colors, as if plucked from one of Theo’s paintings. 

We were in awe. It felt like something was being offered.
As if nature was rewarding our silence with a kind of song. 

We wanted to clap, but we couldn’t.
So instead, we simply smiled and lifted our hands in a quiet gesture of applause.

Thank you.