I learned something in the early hours and the darkness today as I waited for my favourite coffee shop to open. I learned that I don’t hear the birds sing because I am always in a rush to get to the next thing. A rush might be overstating it as a lot of my life is scheduled and calculated, but I am focused on the next task at hand and I miss what is so obviously going on around me.
I am not a bird watcher so this is not a reflection on nature and its beauty. I wonder how many things we actually miss in a given day that we will never know happened. Like a smile we didn’t see, or an act of kindness we were a little blind to.
It seems that there is a long going on everywhere we are and the trick is not more things to do, but rather more things not to do. When we get rid of unnecessary things to do, we give ourselves a chance to be. Being is infinitely more important than doing, although it doesn’t pay as well.
The nice thing is that even when I don’t hear the birds singing, when I don’t see what is going on all around me, it is comforting to know that they don’t care. They do what they choose to do and I am the one that is blessed by it.
The sun still shines even when it is hidden behind the clouds. It continues to shine even we are surrounded by darkness. It shines on the other side of the world and it’s only a matter of time before we come to embrace the next sunrise. So we cam never lose hope, always believe, and sing accordingly, even if the rest of the world doesn’t take in a single note.
