Overheard: Burial

I had a rough couple days this week. Spin down recalibration is always hard for me and some really bad customer service interactions exacerbated my attitude. What happened was I overdosed on people. Most people don't see the introverted Heather and laugh when I mention her - but it's a major (> 50%) part of my self. I am most comfortable alone with my thoughts in nature. Burning Man seems like it would be a great place for nature rejuvenation, but it's exactly the opposite for me. It's 24/7 being around people, the taunt of desolate wasteland.

So yesterday I took off to kiss the pavement. Drive twisty roads that hopefully would not be full of vehicles. Feel the wind in my hair, gaze upon mountains of rock. My hand on the stick shift - in control of my wheels, my destination. Responsible for my attitude. I headed to the Malibu roads via Topanga. Winding my way up Topanga to Tuna, Saddleback, Stuart, Mulholland, Piuma and roads I don't know their names. It was me with the top down and trucks: landscapers, garbage trucks, phone and cable trucks. A lone motorcycle. I stopped and hiked up to the cistern platform. I used to go here for lunch breaks. It was deadly hot and I didn't feel like hiking into the valley, so I sat under some bushes and started reading a book I brought - listening to the birds rustling, the crow caws, the wind blowing up the hills - smelling the valley.

Some time later a car pulled up and some teenagers got out. I heard them come up the path and wondered if they would see me. I expected them to pass on the path and I would be left to the silence again. But they stopped nearby - apparently not noticing me.

I could not help to overhear their pet burial. They came to this place to bury their pet bird. Two girls and a guy. They dug a grave with a stick, buried it, said some last words, made a little shrine and left.

After they left I continued reading for a bit and then decided to leave. I went over to the burial site - a moist part of earth with a stick and three rocks on top of it. The birds in the bushes rustled and chirped. I thought - what a gift from the universe - to overhear a burial. That made me think that maybe I'd do my own burial. So I did. And when I left that place I was lighter than when I arrived.

Comments

[neilalien]

i love it.