Habitually, birds chatter more than usual the mornings before a front blows through. They intrinsically know that food will become temporarily scarce or more difficult to get to when wind and rain obstruct their food source. On such a morning this week, as I sat on the back porch enjoying my breakfast, the birds sounded like a symphony warming up with each instrument doing its own thing, a cacophony for sure!
I turned on my Merlin Bird ID app to help me identify some of the not so familiar notes. I can place the regulars like the cardinal, house finch, or chickadee, but I need help identifying other chirps. Therefore, I clicked on the app’s audio button and in rapid escalation, the app lit up with one bird after another. The pings were coming fast and furiously! I laughed out loud and startled a squirrel approaching my rocker with a pecan in its mouth from my neighbor’s tree. Everybody was having breakfast at once and making an announcement about it! I even observed a downy woodpecker flying back and forth from the feeder to its youngster waiting on a bare branch with its beek wide open.
The symphony sounds started to make sense as each musician was identified using my bird ID tool:
Blue Jay, White-winged Dove, House Finch, House Sparrow, Blue-headed Vireo, Northern Cardinal, Mourning Dove, Carolina Wren, Cedar Waxwing, Downy Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, European Starling, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Chickadee, Painted Bunting, Red-wing Blackbird, Crow, and of course my chickens!
On hearing all this organized noise, my mind wandered to one of the tasks in which I’m currently involved. I’m on our church’s Pastor Search Committee. Now what does that have to do with bird chatter?!?!?!?
As I enjoyed rocking in the early morning on my back porch, I finished off the rest of my tea in my small blue-green ceramic teapot, and pondered on the art of listening. As a pastor search committee, we’ve listened to our congregation through surveys, round-table lunch discussions, reports of said surveys, and still asked for more feedback to identify and synthesize what each church member felt were priority traits for our next pastor.
Initially it might have seemed like a lot of noise, but eventually, we listened so intentionally that we were able to “prioritize the priorities” and develop a ruberic to use as a tool for categorizing the prospective candidates. Our members were heard, and the responses were colated and organized. Soon, we should have a new pastor.
What began as discordant, pre-symphony warm-up sounds, became identifiable. That’s what listening is all about!
How do you tame the noise and listen intently ?
Birds find nooks and crannies in your house.
Sparrows and swallows make nests there.
They lay their eggs and raise their young, singing their songs in the place where we worship.
How blessed they are to live and sing there!