The Thunder of Leaves

They say in Calgary that if you don't like the weather out your front door, look out your back door. Well, it was one of those dynamic fall days.

I was standing on my front porch, absorbing the golden beauty of the aspen trees around our house and enjoying the cool fall air. The sky from my front door had a mix of cumulus clouds and a bit of blue. But a closer look at the clouds showed how quickly they were moving. I didn't know that the weather service had predicted gusts of up to 100 kilometres per hour for that day.

Suddenly, a blast of wind sent every fallen leaf in sight into whirlwinds of movement. If I had looked out the back door, I would have seen the storm coming. Leaves filled the air making every movement of the wind visible in whirlwinds, eddies, updrafts, downdrafts and currents. It was an incredible sight.

Even more amazing was the sound. If leaves could sound like thunder, this would have been it. The sound of the leaves drowned out any sound of the wind. I stood on the porch spellbound.

Shuffling through fallen leaves on the sidewalk or in the yard in the fall has always been one of my favorite things. I love the sound! For me, it is the best part of the experience. I don't think I have met anyone who didn't like the sound of shuffling through fallen leaves or who carries a fond memory of jumping into a big pile of leaves as a kid.

When I thought about the sound of these leaves after the storm, it reminded me of white noise. White noise is like the "shhhhhh" you hear when you tune your radio in between the stations. Technically, it represents all frequencies, or a wide band of frequencies sounded equally together. It can also be a background noise that you ignore, like a fan running.

The brain has a response to repetitive noise in the background called auditory habituation. You may have heard of or know people who live near train tracks or a busy highway who no longer notice the sound of the trains or cars. The noise doesn't bother them. Through auditory habituation, the brain also no longer registers the sound as important or creates an emotional response to the noise.

White noise in the background may help to mask distracting sounds you don't want to listen to. For example, if you are in a hotel and voices from the next room are disturbing you, turning on a fan or playing a CD with recorded white noise may be helpful in blocking out the sounds. If you work in a busy office with cubicles and are distracted by noise making it difficult to focus on your work, a fan or recorded white noise may be helpful to block out the sounds. If you live by train tracks or a busy road and the sound disturbs you, white noise may helpful in masking the sounds. White noise may also be helpful for those who suffer from insomnia, tinnitus or ringing in the ears. If you are working with your doctor or audiologist for treatment of these conditions, you might ask him or her about the possibility of trying white noise.

Sounds in nature, similar to white noise, may also be helpful in masking distracting sounds. Do you enjoy sitting on the beach and listening to the waves? The sound of waves, a babbling brook, a waterfall, falling rain, rustling leaves are examples of nature's version of white noise.

I hope you find a few moments to playfully shuffle through the leaves this fall. Maybe we will meet as we zigzag along the sidewalk shuffling happily.