Five ways to listen to nature

by Nancy Bloom

1. Listen to the audible voices of Nature – Frogs chanting, crickets singing, flowing waters of streams and creeks, wind in the pines, a lake lapping against the shore, birdsongs, ocean waves against the beach or crashing on the rocks, rain falling…all have their songs to delight your ears! See how many more voices you can hear in the natural world. And remember we as humans are nature too! Human Nature. A baby’s laugh, a mother’s lullaby, sounds of children playing, these too are sounds of Nature.

2. Open with your whole being to receive the Presences of Nature around and near you – Rocks, sunsets, trees, ground, waters, birds, plants, rain, stars, lizards, sunlight, bees, wildlife, springs, cliffs, hail and more.

3. Listen with your inner ear to the messages that each presence in Nature gives you. Everything you listen to deeply will speak to you. A rock, a waterfall, a sunset, a mist, a river, a blade of grass, a boulder, an owl or dragonfly, each has a gift for you of deeper understanding, new ways of being and knowing. I invite you to listen to everything in Nature , from the vast to the tiny, they all may be your teachers.

4. Sense the Natural World around you, opening to the touch of the air on your skin the way it is in a particular place, or the felt sense of a waterfall nearby and how it refreshes you, the welcome warmth of sunlight on your body, the reverberations of thunder, the softness of sand, the smoothness of a small rock, the roughness of some lava rock, the coolness of a leaf with morning dew on it. The things you touch touch you…The things you sense awaken your senses!

5. Open to your own Nature as you open to and resonate with the Natural World around you. Who are you then? Who are you becoming?

May you enjoy the many gifts of Listening to Nature this summer!