Spring brings a burst of color to many places with budding trees, flowering shrubs and sprouting bulbs but it also brings an amazing soundtrack. The soundtrack of life.
Spring is a joyous, heart opening season for both nature and for us. We are longing to leave our homes and explore. We welcome the new and unknown with a lightness that may not have been there a few months ago. We too are entering spring. As we begin to sluff off the old skin, and the old ways of doing notice the sounds around you and really feel into them. I invite you to deeply listen -- with your heart and your ears. Both will guide you and help you open, and maybe lead you down a new path.
I have the joy of waking, or being awoken, every morning by birdsong and as I’ve mentioned in a few of my posts this is not a gentle, calm tweet. This birdsong is raucous! It’s the sound of many birds, of all types, singing or yelling -- impatient and irritated or happy and joyful all at once. It’s a busy time of year. Many creatures are building homes, fatten up after a winter of hibernating or slim pickings, strutting their dance moves, shaking their feathered butts, taking a lot of baths, and singing their arias to attract a mate or discourage an interloper. The birdsongs make up a large section of my spring playlist but they are not the only hits. The winter chill is slowly losing its edge and the sun melts the mountain snow releasing a rush of waters into falls, streams, rivers and estuaries. Water, the essence of life, can pound down from a great height and tear through small rivers ripping anything in its path, or it can gently slip into a stream barely making a ripple. As we listen to the extremes our hearts pound with excitement and we are in awe, or our hearts are calmed and we are soothed. The soundtrack of water draws us in just as the birdsong. Not to be out done in the celebration of spring the night brings with it a completely different soundtrack. The raucous song no longer belongs to the birds but to the frogs! Their chirps cannot be quieted by the howls and hoots of coyotes and owls. No, no, they sing as a joyous choir allowing only the crickets to add a few brief flourishes.
But what about the human soundtrack you say? Yup, there is definitely a lot of breath and heartbeats to soothe you, keep you present, and calm your nervous system. Let us also not forget the music we make. You know, the songs you sing in your car when you don’t care if anyone hears. The songs you need when you’re sad, happy, or in love. The songs that make your heart soar, that remind you of University, friends, first loves and breakups, concerts and clubs. The songs your parents play (or played) and dance to, the songs you sang to with your sister, the songs your sister asked you never to sing again, the songs you force your husband to listen to and he does because they really aren’t that great but he loves you, the songs your kids play and sometimes you have to admit are pretty good, the songs your brother-in-law shares on the playlists he makes for you, the songs you sing in the grocery store (you do so sing in the grocery store), and the new songs you are always discovering. These too are soundtracks to life, and these too should be celebrated.
Spring is not a time to rest and reflect. It's time to get going! Clean out your nest, tidy yourself up, act on your intentions, revisit your 2021 word, sing your own ode to joy, and build your own soundtrack to life.