Last weekend, I went to a remote Greek mountain village called Artotina. It is really in the middle of nowhere, inhabited by thirty or so people during the winter and many more during August.... This, sadly, seems to be the fate of so many Greek villages - to be deserted except for one month a year.
I realised that by simply being there, one gets a clear and distinct feeling of spiritual (and intellectual) freshness. Yet it seems that we (I, at least) are so affected by the busyness of city-life that such feeling cannot and does not last for much longer than a couple of hours after one returns.
No music up there! One evening, we went up to the top (almost!) of the mountain, where I experienced the sound of silence. One could only hear the smooth whistling of the wind accompanied sweetly by the goat bells. Being exposed to so much music throughout the year, I felt that this very "music", this echo of eternity, had a cathartic effect over me... This picture is from there, 1, 800 metres up....
I realised that by simply being there, one gets a clear and distinct feeling of spiritual (and intellectual) freshness. Yet it seems that we (I, at least) are so affected by the busyness of city-life that such feeling cannot and does not last for much longer than a couple of hours after one returns.
No music up there! One evening, we went up to the top (almost!) of the mountain, where I experienced the sound of silence. One could only hear the smooth whistling of the wind accompanied sweetly by the goat bells. Being exposed to so much music throughout the year, I felt that this very "music", this echo of eternity, had a cathartic effect over me... This picture is from there, 1, 800 metres up....
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