I wrote this post a couple of months ago, just as the light was beginning to change.
When I woke up this morning I spent some time listening to the bird song. I didn’t have much choice really – there’s a pigeon/dove type thing who has made a nest just outside our bedroom window and she was singing away this morning. Quite a repetitive song, really. I was starting to wish the tune would change a bit and then I thought, ‘maybe she’s just doing a bit of housework and has a song stuck in her head.’ I’ve been there. So I let it pass.
I let my ears tune in to the other songs happening outside. When you spend a lot of time inside you can easily miss what is happening for pure joy outside and it’s such a shame. It’s not hard to miss the insistent call of the cockatoos as they sit on the tree outside our neighbour’s house and demand to be fed but the lovely lilting song of other little birds is easier to ignore. This morning I listened and let it lift my spirits. There are about five different birds out there, all going for it. Including my dove/pigeon thingy. A lovely chorus giving thanks for the day. Science would probably tell us that the songs have all got to do with sex and food and territory but I will instead imagine that they are singing for joy for the day and the sunshine and the new morning.
As the days have started getting longer I have started to be able to go home from work in the twilight instead of the pitch blackness. That is an amazing, wonderful change that gives me hope and joy every year. Last week as I walked to my car in the twilight there was beautiful bird song pouring out of the sky. Such a gift, a free gift and a blessing. A song of praise that the day is over, a song of thanksgiving for the day and a reminder to me that there is something outside of work. When the day has been full and overwhelming and you feel like you will never get the work done and you are taking work home to do in the evenings because you didn’t have enough time during the day and your head is full of work and work problems and work still to do, the bird song cuts through the repeating chorus in your head and says, ‘look around. There is still light! There is still song. There is still joy to be had in the sky, the clouds, the air on your face.’
That right there, is refreshment.