Silence as an export product

Nobody turned up yesterday at my meditation session. Alice Springs is only marginally ready for meditation and mindfulness.  I did not mind, I sat there in the beautiful silence of the studio for a while, waiting, listening. I had planned to focus on listening with my students. I had some bells with me and some old paper to grumble and tear up.
As soon as we are listening we are not thinking. Listening immediately silences the zoo that is our mind. Thus I was first listening to the outer universe around me, the sounds of the industrial estate of Alice Springs on a Monday around 6. It was amazing what a complex of sounds were present, from birds to heavy machinery in the distance. Then I listened to the silence in the studio for a while. Then I focused my attention on the inner universe of sounds; my own breathing and all other sounds that the body produces when it sits. I could even hear my blood pumping behind my ears.
I did this for ten minutes or so and noticed how refreshed I felt while riding my bike home. The sun was setting, the town was producing it's buzz. The silence from the desert was crowding in... Alice Springs should export silence. There's nothing like the silence of the desert. If only we could can it and send it too noisy places.