Thank You for Sounds and Silence

Since I live downtown, on the third floor, the only bird sounds I usually hear in the morning are from seagulls (I also live near the bay).

Seagulls in the morning are a very welcome sound after all the night sounds that one hears in an urban area.

This morning, the trilling and chirping of an unfamiliar bird broke into the  silence of my downtown apartment.

It almost startled me with it’s sweetness.

My cat, Isabel, jumped onto the window sill with a look of confusion.

We both peeked through the window screen to find the source of the bird song.

The bird was gone in a fleeting moment, flying past the window on its way to a place where birds hang out in trees instead of alleys.

Silence returned.

In the silence I recalled beautiful sounds I have heard that I don’t often hear these days…

Crickets chirping

Frogs

Rustling leaves in a breeze

Water rippling over river rocks

Coyotes howling in the desert

Deer moving through tall grass

And the murmur of my own heartbeat in the stark silence of the middle of nowhere.

I am grateful to know these sounds even if I don’t hear them very often.

Today, there is Construction going on outside my building.

I am missing the bird.

~ by leakelley on May 11, 2010.