I feel a different flow of air and echo from the surrounding buildings compared to this morning. Even with low traffic flow an average of 60 - 70 decibels checked on my meter
I note human voices of greeting and passing feet. An overflying jet cuts through the noise of idling bus engines and reversing horn of distant truck.
Wind hisses through small trees planted outside the Cathedral. Concrete seats feel cold underfoot, but the colours are vivid and warm, gold and greens, low shrubs and the wall of the cathedral providing some shelter. I see muted colours from corporate grey towers and pavers. No birdsong that can be heard in this place at present. The square is closed to pedestrian traffic for the renovation. The air is not sweet; there are diesel fumes in my nostrils from the laying over buses. A woman sits contemplatively cross legged reading a book. A man sits eating a sandwich. There is distant tapping of shoes but this is hard to hear against constant machine noise. I notice most people move quickly hands in pocket, faces looking down, others hurry and I notice different styles of walking, some stride looking relaxed
Two noisy miners liquid song breaks through the continual machine hum of the city.
The beep of the pedestrian crossing, then shriek of team wheels traversing the edge of the square. I hear the noise of windblown dried leaves blown across the concrete. I feel the creeping cold through my woollen jacket.
As I pray I imagine rough sleepers in the city travelling hungry and cold through the wind tunnels and seeking shelter.
It's the under noise of bus layover, higher pitched noises of tyres and engines. The varied transport noises I find have a broad spectrum. I tell myself I'm enduring not enjoying. I'm appreciating the sense of cathedral shade. I imagine the square before Europeans as a grass covered area of meeting and shelter.
The bell off the post office clock chimes - what do I make of it? The decibel meter goes up and down not in waves but spiking according to noise. A bus moves off at a roar and exhaust. It's not hospitable space I feel. It's an empty space between indoor spaces of meeting.
I don't find it easy to think of this as holy ground. Rather as exposure and endurance. Im finding it hard to feel silent in this cutting wind. I note negative thinking and the temptation to get a cup of coffee. The presence of another sitting nearby is supportive. I'm in judging mode losing the sense of new sounds from a construction crane across the road. Flashing warning lights draw my attention.
There is a break as a new group arrives to participate, a move into voice after listening . There is the feeling of the warm of proximity to other pilgrims sharing the same project. I’m listening more intently to bus harmonics and the echo of sounds from the buildings. The sound of air released from bus brakes. I hear helicopter and light aircraft and the visual the striking yellow orange of traffic bollards, the harsh sound of ascending aircraft and reverberation and echo. Construction noise clanking buckets. Judging mind is very strong. Rain begins to fall on me and across the words on the I Pad.
Can I pray here? Trees indicate a connection with nature. I’m finding it hard to pray, hard to get the sense of being in Australia rather than any city in the world in winter. Human symbols abound. Birds heard dimly meditation hard. Hours sounding from the Clock, measured time dominates this place every 15 minutes. Square cut into shapes, times into shapes, skyline into geometric shapes. I notice the spread of green lichen on the cathedral and the untidy lines of a loose tile.
When I close my eyes to meditate all seems different and I feel more compassion and less able to judge or experience this time as endurance against cold and noise. I bring loving kindness and compassion to the experience.
Afterwards I noticed how much more vivid life felt, how much more detail I was noticing in people, buildings and in sound. I noted the discontinuity between what I was hearing and the measurement of the decibel meter. For example a jet seemed loud yet only added 4 decibels to the loud background ambient sound of a noisy place which I would not ordinarily think of as loud. In the cathedral is seemed much quieter but was in fact only 10 decibels quieter. This was a reminder that I often see and judge with my visual sense of relationship rather than hearing and experiencing and therefore impose myself on the landscape and soundscape. I noticed I prefer to pray while walking or inside buildings and that sitting in a place without a lovely view seemed strange.
Station Two Victoria Square Adelaide 1pm – 2:45 pm
