Consider the Birds

I was awake at 3:30 in the morning. My mind was racing as it’s been doing non-stop the past few weeks or so. Certain realities of life that had mostly felt concrete, prior to very recently, are suddenly gone or simply up in the air. Where will it all land? We don’t know, is what the professionals keep saying.

As my mind flitted about from one worry and prayer to another the sound of birds pierced my nearly subconscious thoughts. Why are the birds chirping at this hour? I moaned while fluffing my pillow for the countless time. Don’t they know it’s the middle of the night!

Scientists call this early morning bird singing the dawn chorus, which is most noticeable in spring when birds are migrating or mating. The name dawn chorus sounds so delightful except when you’re trying to get sleep in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. And, yet, maybe this is the point: singing in the middle of a storm, reaping during a time of scarcity, staying on mission. Maybe the birds have something to teach us after all, I mused. Read More

My grandmother introduced me to the dawn chorus when I was a boy. She was an early riser. She got up before the rest of the household and made the morning tea. She loved to hear the birds singing at the break of day.

What Kelly Minter may have heard at 3:30 in the morning was a night bird. Some birds sing at night; other awaken earlier than the rest. The dawn chorus does not really begin to tune up until the sun begins to peep over the horizon.

When I hear the dawn chorus, I am reminded of my grandmother. She was a gentle soul who sung hymns as she went about her daily chores. Her favorite hymn was Charles Wesley's "Jesus, Lover of my soul."

Her father had been a school master. Since he had pupils in both the local Anglican parish church and the local Methodist chapel, he attended both services with his family. My grandmother's family experienced hard times when her father lost his voice after plunging into the cold water of a canal or river to rescue a drowning boy.

My grandmother played an important role in my upbringing since my mother, my older brother, and I lived with my grandparents. One of the things that she taught me was to live by the Golden Rule, Do unto others as you would have done unto you." From her I learned the important of being kind to others and of being considerate of them.