This morning I heard a bird as I was waking up.
His song caught both the mathematical and artistic sides of my mind.
His tones and tunes where mathematically a full 1 sound then followed by the same sound in a 1 and 1 combination then followed by 4-6 short but vibrato sounds.
I am sure bird specialists would have known the distinctly direct series of first three highly pitched calls followed by calls a little lower pitched but still bird alto/soprano sounds.
I realized sadly that most days I don’t hear birds, and if I do I don’t stop to listen carefully to them. This being the Sabbath, I felt less rushed, and could listen deeply to this creatures singing.
Then I could here two birds, one singing the first part of 1 sound followed by the 1 and 1 combination then another doing the ending of that song, the 4-6 short but vibrato alto pitches.
I realized they were listening to each other better than I had listened to them and better than I was listening to others and others were listen to me.
A few minutes later, I was listening to Fernando Ortega singing This is My Fathers World. “To my listening ears all nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.” “the birds their carols raise”.
In that sequence of events this early Sabbath morning, I could see the centrality of both listening and the sabbath as moral acts essential for moral development and ethical living.
Stopping to listen allowed a world I had not allowed into my mind to enter. Thus I was fuller, fuller in meaning and understanding, fuller of praise. Fuller in morality. “let me ne’er forget that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.”
Thanks ears, thanks birds, and thanks Sabbath.
These are gifts of moral learning for me.
Help me to LISTEN TODAY.