Bird Droppings April 3-5, 2011
Listening to silence

I have been lazy these first few days of Spring Break sitting in my yard as the moon is nearly gone listening in silence to what was about me. I was trying to hear the minutest of sounds perhaps the echoes of dogs in neighborhoods a distance off since yesterday morning there was no wind to move pine boughs as the air was still. The night sky has been brilliant shining effortlessly over my shoulder stars and constellations have taken over for the moon. Periodically I would hear the sounds of my dog clicking along the side walk and patio when she would come over to me from the house she was ready to go in. The temperature is still a bit cool for crickets and tree frogs although weather forecasts have warmer nights ahead. The days are warm and even sitting here in the coolness of morning it is bearable not blanket weather anymore a few more degrees of warmth till the night time creatures begin their symphony.
I did not sleep well last night rising early this morning shortly after midnight when a huge storm blew through. I stayed awake as the power went on and off several times over the next few hours knowing my wife had to get up to go to work and I had nothing till ten o’clock or so. So I could sit for a few minutes more in the quiet of morning checking my emails and listening to the wind blowing what a contrast to the past few nights. I was trying to think of what to write.

“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.” Henry David Thoreau

When I talk of getting up at three in the morning most people scoff at the idea you are crazy but sitting and listening to silence is a powerful way to start the day by clearing your thoughts focusing on silence to a point you hear your heart beat or the clicking of your puppies toe nails on cement.

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” Henry David Thoreau

Occasionally a thought will linger with me as I try and sort through the how’s and whys – wondering if it is or isn’t and or maybe right or maybe wrong. A student came in my room last week and said to call about a Pow-Wow coming up because her mother who is part Cherokee is the local organizer for native American gatherings in the area. I shared a red tailed hawk feather with her to take to her mother.

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.” Henry David Thoreau

Often I will spend my class period just sitting and talking having friendly conversation interestingly enough many the time people will come in and sit join in the conversation and ask what are you teaching. I often avoid saying anything other than whatever is needed right now which more often than not is true. Most high school students look at me quizzically and pass it off as Mr. Bird is weird. But working with students who many times never have a civil conversation with anyone that sitting and talking about anything is a lesson in humanity and joining in with others and being accepting is far more a lesson than trying to read about friendship in a text or on the internet.

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” Henry David Thoreau

Several days ago I asked a student why they came to my room and was told because you will listen. I got thinking I practice every morning before most of these students even wake up listening to the silence. Then as I sit here now maybe in the silence I can sort out the day ahead and be patient with those that need and be able to listen when others can not.

“In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.” Henry David Thoreau

Not understanding silence many would simply say there is nothing to understand about nothing but is silence nothing when a heart is hurting or pain holds a voice silent. Is there sound in a tear or a touch? Far too many of us are waiting on words and silence is a practiced lesson. Listening to silence takes patience and time and many of us are not willing to take either.

“Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them” Henry David Thoreau

It is learning that silence too is music and is poetry and is meaning. It is listening to the silence and grasping its significance and defining attributes by sorting through the moments and seconds when silence prevails. For me it is an early morning meditation and watching a few embers from a sage leave or two die flickering away in a moment with a wisp of smoke silently gliding upward often taking a turn as it clears the tall grass. It is time to be silent to be alone to listen to silence this is a choice we each need to make when it is time and when you are prepared.

“I have never found a companion that was as companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone; let him be where he will.” Henry David Thoreau

Often on websites and blog sites you are asked who would you like to me I put down Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Students have asked me why and I once said both men had opportunity to listen to silence and generally the student will get a blank look and walk away another nonsensically bird dropping from Mr. Bird. Please keep all in harms way on your mind and in your heart.
namaste
bird