How to Pay Attention This Week

The sounds around us tell us about how the seasons are shifting.

Wandering this morning when the air was in the mid-40s and the sun warm on my face, I couldn’t ignore the fact that change of the bird songs hadn’t just slightly changed, but dramatically had changed.

Through the years on the land here, I have gotten to know the seasons through many time-telling shifts, such as the way the air smells, the way the lichen grows, the way the trees change, the way the sun hits various valleys and hills uniquely, but most of all the birds are the tell-tale over everything around here.

I opened the window upon waking because I thought I heard the mourning dove, and sure enough, it was back on the roof of our house. These little sounds that go silent in winter and then return with the sunlight reaching back toward the north are a sign of the land shifts. It is funny that the longer I pay attention to these things, the more sensitive I am to when they are too early or too late. The urgency begins to shift in me. The way I feel certain things need to begin.

Nevertheless, I listen with the specific goal of learning the rhythms of the land well enough to know when spring arrives, not by the calendar, but by the words of nature.

The birds have a tap on the shifts of the land. They are drawn to the light’s changes. They have a conversation amongst each other, and I realized is valuable to listen and learn how to speak it, they have a lot of wisdom.

Below, I give info on how to track the shifts, timing, and who I spend time amongst when the sun begins to shine longer and the snow dissipates again.