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Filiz Telek's avatar

As I sit here reading your beautiful words, stories and invitation, Debraji, the music I am listening in this very moment is the melody of countless songbirds - blackbirds, wrens and sparrows, blackbirds, nightingales, blue jays and swallows -, a rooster crowing in the distance perhaps still making an effort to wake up any sleepyheads still asleep on this late Saturday morning, faint sounds of cars passing by, my neighbor Fatma's voice calling to her husband, a chicken fervently laying eggs... I feel truly blessed to live in this soundscape.

My heart goes out to those living with a more harsh soundscape; can I hear the sounds of human suffering if I listen far and wide enough? How far can we hear starting from our home places? I wonder, if my listening becomes so comprehensive, without dismissing the music of my everyday life, would I still consider any sound as "noise"?

In a recent movement retreat I attended, our facilitator invited us to move to the sounds of the world on that first morning where there was no power to listen to the usual music broadcast from a computer. It was enlightening. When I deeply listened to the rumbling of an airplane flying far above, I could not help but imagining all the places and people it was flying over that morning, all those places and people waking up to a new day, their daily occupations, all the joys and sorrows of human life. It was a beautiful meditation of compassion.

I enjoyed this short teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh who shares how to receive a sound mindfully and practicing returning to presence with the help of sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsVB-L-IFG4&t=260s

May the music of what is happening bring us closer home to ourselves as well as closer to all beings.

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Jennifer Armstrong's avatar

Wonderful. The symphony of bees recording is remarkable. My whole body is buzzing alive in response. I am hearing the cicadas, birds chirping, the clock ticking... I woke into the day with cats purring and kneading the blanket over my belly. Thank you for this Holy Mischief.

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