Everything speaks, and the symphony-of-life builds upon the unique participation of each being—such as a chorus of coyotes at dawn, the metallic clicking of insect wings in the summer afternoon, the trickling of a desert spring inside a still canyon, or the rustling of aspen leaves in the mountain breeze. Each thing—that which is an animate expression of the Earth—announces its place in the world simply by the way it is, how it innately calls and responds to the world around it, both in form and behavior. One way to celebrate life is to praise the beauty of all the voices and to honor the variety of ways in which the world expresses itself.
Obviously, many beings speak through vocalizing; yet, this is but one mode of having a voice. Language is not relegated to sound. Not by a long shot. There are other forms of language in the wild world, a myriad of expressions including pheromones, color, texture, body posture or movement, art, imagination, dreams, ceremony, and ritual. Not to mention the conditions and timing relative to when and where these expressions come alive, which is also a unique insight into how a thing enters into communication and relationship with the place it is in. This applies to everything in the world, from rivers and rocks to racoons and rhododendrons. Everything has an expression, a kind of language; and because of that, the world is always communicating.
In all corners of the Earth, and perhaps even the cosmos, there are beings constantly conveying information about how they are in relationship with the others around them. There is a constant broadcast of information within an ecosystem, ready to be experienced by those who are open and willing to listen. For human beings, the experience requires the kind of listening that can only be done through the ears of our hearts and as interpreted by our wild imagination. That depth of listening may sound impossible for people these days; however, we were designed to detect such conversations, and the capacity to do so still lives inside our bodies.
Some say our ability to witness the symphony-of-life, in the way only humans can, is an aspect of our collective voice that announces our role within the Earth community—to mirror life’s interconnecting spirit back to the Earth. On the morning of April 1st, before you join the Earthsongwave Dawn Chorus, take some time to listen deeply to the song of the place you are in, for we are all eligible polyglots in the various dialects of soul.
Vocalizing back to the world in response to what it offers is one viable way of communing with the world and is most familiar to us. However, do not overlook nonverbal ways in which you can receive and respond to the influence of a place or being. The world speaks perfectly the languages of dance, poetry, emotional outpour, visual art, rhythm, or ritual. Often times, these expressions work as well or better than speaking with words alone. When we unabashedly hold ourselves up against the raw nature of the world and speak across a culturally imposed species boundary in creative and spontaneous ways, a deeper and more soulful aspect of our authentic inner nature can spill forth to join that of the world’s.
In this space, our expressions have double meanings; something offered can have inner and outer implication. Metaphors, symbols, and images become reality. And under the inspection of our capacity for self-reflexive witnessing, we can notice our true nature coming through in the conversation. And before we know it, we can catch ourselves participating in the great conversation as seamlessly as all the non-humans do. We may be surprised at what we overhear ourselves expressing, and we may be even more confounded at the responses we receive from the world. While participating in the never-ending call and response of all the world’s beings, we can be sure that whatever emerges from our astonished selves will be heard by the more-than-human world as we take the first steps towards returning our note to the symphony-of-life.
By John Lynch of Arizona
Thank you John for your offering for Earthsongwave Dawn Chorus 2019. John is a Guide at Animas Valley Institute, Lecturer at North Arizona University and Deep Personal Development Facilitator. He is also a contact for Earthsongwave Dawn Chorus in New Mexico.