Jul

An Audible Feast for the Global Community

by Joyce McGreevy on July 13, 2020

Hands painted to show a world map remind the author that as our global community celebrates World Listening Day, we have a world of sounds at our fingertips, online and in our physical environment. (Image by Pxhere)

Lend an ear to the world of sounds at your fingertips!

Have You Heard? World Listening Day Honors the “Hear” and Now.

Listen…do you hear that? It’s the sound of your world. From a cat’s purr to an elevator’s hum to human voices, sound is an important element of our natural and cultural environment. Shh…do you hear this? It’s the sound of people across six continents inviting you to World Listening Day, an annual event that will unite the global community this Saturday, July 18.

World Listening Day? What’s that?

I’m glad you asked. Listen closely and I’ll tell you.

A sign for Quiet Street in Bath, England sets the tone for mindful listening with the global community on World Listening Day July 18. (Image © by Joyce McGreevy)

The soundscape emerges when we still the noise within.
© Joyce McGreevy

It started—quietly enough—in the 1970s with a Canadian composer named Raymond Murray Schafer. His World Soundscape Project developed the fundamentals of acoustic ecology, the study of the relationship in sound between human beings and their environment.

“When you listen carefully to the soundscape,” said Schafer, “it becomes quite miraculous.”

Schafer’s ideas struck a chord with so many people around the world that in 2010, World Listening Day was founded. It falls on July 18 to honor Schafer’s birthday.

A jackrabbit with ears alert to the least sound reminds the author that listening to nature is one aspect of the mindful listening celebrated by the community on World Listening Day July 18. (Image © by Joyce McGreevy)

How alert are we to the sound of our world?
© Skeeze/ Pixabay

Now Hear This

This year, communities around the globe will be participating in listening events hosted by the World Listening Project. This year’s theme, created by Wildlife Sanctuary Vice President Katherine Krause is The Collective Field.

“Current times have asked each of us, individually and in concert, to retreat, reflect, and rethink the world we thought we knew,” says Krause. And so, on this international day of awareness, Krause asks us to still the noise in our head and to listen—really, listen—to the “collective field” of overlapping environments:

the natural world of animals, plants, land, water, and weather.
the human-built soundscape of traffic, machinery, and even architecture.
the cultural environment—the voices we hear, and the voices we “tune out.”

Soundwaves evoke the soundscapes that the global community will tune into on World Listening Day July 18. (Image by Pixabay)

What enhances or hinders our ability to tune in to the world’s wavelengths?

Say, What?

We’ll look at—I mean “listen to”—each environment in a moment. But first, I swear I can hear what you’re thinking: Isn’t listening something we do every day?

Yes, but mostly we hear passively. Most sounds blend and wash over us, whether we’re on a conference call or a beautiful island. At other times, we focus on one particular sound, whether it’s the warble of a bird or the whine of a leaf-blower. Sound experts call this directed listening.

Active listening is when we notice how sounds affect each other, our environment, ourselves, and others. During a “quiet” walk on a beach, for example, we might hear not only seagull cries and the whoosh of the waves, but also the light drum of our footfall on firm sand, the jingling collar of a playful dog, and in the distance, scattered outbreaks of faint voices and car radio music.

Listening as a Global Community

On July 18, thousands of people around the world will participate in a wide variety of listening activities. Here are just a few suggestions.

Take a soundwalk. This is any excursion whose main purpose is listening to the environment. It is exposing our ears to every sound around us no matter where we are.

People taking an urban soundwalk, one of the best ways the global community can celebrate World Listening Day. (Image © by Joyce McGreevy)

Wherever you live is the perfect place to take a soundwalk.
© Joyce McGreevy

Before COVID, cities from Chicago to Sydney regularly offered guided soundwalks for small groups. Today you can still glean much from a solo or shared soundwalk of your own.

Walk in silence in an area that you think you know well, such as your own neighborhood. Listen attentively for as many sounds as possible. If walking with another, pause occasionally to compare what you’ve noticed. (Consider using breaks to jot down lists and exchange them in silence to stay in “listening mode.” )

Map the sounds of nature. Listen to the sounds of nature—even if you’re self-isolating. Nature Sound Map (see screenshot from website below) lets you travel the world, discovering soundscapes of our planet’s wildlife, oceans, and other natural phenomena.

Map of Australia with pinpoints of recorded sounds made accessible to the global community by the Nature Soundmap website.

Hear the sounds of morning in Capertee Valley, Australia on the Nature Soundmap website.
© Wild Ambiance

Be sure to check out World Sounds (see screenshot from website below), too. This global archive offers both human-built and natural soundscapes. What would you hear on a walk through a market in London—or in Kampong Cham, Cambodia? What does the Eiffel Tower sound like? Find out on . . .

Screenshot from the World Sounds website that makes soundscapes recorded around the world accessible to the global community

Hear the sounds of urban life, markets, religious centers, and more nature soundscapes
on the World Sounds website. © World Sounds

Describe your day in sound. We each have a unique soundtrack that plays behind our day. As I write in my apartment, I hear the tapping of the keyboard under my fingers, the click and clink of ice in a thin glass of water, the murmur of an old refrigerator.

Sounds of the neighborhood filter in through the open window: the flute-like call of a western meadowlark, a breeze rustling Ponderosa pines, delivery trucks pulling into the parking lot, two girls discussing ice cream, and one block away, the cheers of peaceful protestors as passing drivers sound their car horns.

These sounds encapsulate not only nature and the built environment, but also several clues about the time, place, and culture in which I live. What does your day sound like? Describe it in a brief social media post or email and invite friends to respond with the sounds of their day.

Listen to others. Part of honoring the “hear” and now is to listen mindfully to people around us, gaining insight into each other’s experiences, viewpoints, and insights. This isn’t always easy. When we’re too reactive, too dismissive, or simply unaware, it’s as if the noise of our own conditioning drowns out what others are trying to say.

A crowd at a busy airport in various modes of listening or tuning out remind the author why we need World Listening Day to reunite our global community in the act of mindful listening. (Image by Pixabay)

What do we miss when we tune out?
© Joyce McGreevy

The good news is that we can change this in a moment. We can break a “loud” habit by simply listening. We can quell the urge to instantly shut down a different opinion. We can stop one-upping a friend’s account of a significant personal experience with an oft-told tale of our own. We can refrain from retorting defensively, “Well, I’M not like that!” when someone opens up about experiencing racism, stereotyping, or other forms of bias.

Oh, I see: To hear the world clearly, we must first reckon with our own interruptions.

A man sits by the water, listening but also wearing earphones, a reminder of why we need World Listening Day to reunite our global community in the act of mindful listening. (Image by Pixabay)

What are we listening to? What don’t we hear?
© Mircea Lancu/Pixabay

Listening to the World

Wherever you are this Saturday, July 18, you can take part in World Listening Day. Whether you listen to nature, the human-built soundscape, the environment of cultural discourse, or all three, you’re sure to experience an aha moment. Now that’s a sound idea.

Find events specific to your country and join the global community for World Listening Day, here.

Sound expert Julian Treasure shares 5 ways to “re-tune” your ears for better listening, here.

“Being Hear,” by Emmy-winning acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton, is a 10-minute treat for the senses, here.

Comment on the post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Joyce McGreevy Comments

Crossing Cultures/Nature Discovery/Worldwide Sites

May

A Celebration of Spring

by Meredith Mullins on May 18, 2020

In search of paradise (A Bird of Paradise, that is)
© iStock/Waltkopp

Flowers Around the World—the Scary, the Exotic, and the Reassuring

Spring came . . . just as promised through the ages. Not even a global pandemic could stop the natural rhythms of the earth. (This story begins like an ancient myth, doesn’t it?)

The clenched tree buds exploded into gentle leaves of green almost overnight. Flowers bloomed everywhere around the world making the words “riot of color” less of a cliché because the description was so true.

A celebration of spring—poppies in the Paris Jardin des Plantes
© Mavis Negroni

We welcomed the renewal/rebirth metaphor of spring, especially in this time of corona. The change in seasons was one small way to gauge the strange time warp that had enveloped the world during sheltering-in-place/confinement/lockdown.

But we all knew the truth. The celebration of spring would have to be different this year. Many of us could not leave our houses. Many could travel only within a small radius of home. And, in most cases, our favorite public gardens were locked up tight. What’s a lover of spring to do?

The elegant White Egret Flower (Habenaria radiata) seems to take flight.
(From Japan and East Asia)
© iStock/Magicflute002

A Journey for a Virtual Traveler

To put myself in the mood, I started a virtual tour of spring by searching for exotic flowers around the world.

Why not search for flowers that stretch the imagination? Yikes!
(The Monkey Orchid, Dracula saulii)
© iStock/Beatrice Sirinuntananon

The Ballerina Orchid (caladenia melanema from Australia) is an elegant addition to the world
of exotic flora (and a little less “Little Shop of Horrors” than the Monkey Orchid.)
© iStock/Beatrice Sirinuntananon

From Central and South America to the Mediterranean to the Far East, these unique flowers are works of art, although some were clearly transforming themselves into creatures from a Star Wars bar scene, heroines from fairytales, or dancers from vivid lockdown dreams.

Wildflowers (Calceolaria uniflora) from South America. Do they belong
in a Star Wars bar or on stage, starring in a modern version of MacBeth?
© iStock/Gerhard Saueracker

Had I been in “confinement” for too many days? Were exotic flowers mutating into alien beings before my Netflix-weary eyes?

An alien or a flower—you be the judge.
(The Darth Vadar flower from Central and South America.)
© iStock/Gyro

The good news: I wasn’t alone in imagining the anthropomorphic qualities of these blooms. Others had seen the same qualities (and not even during lockdown).

Does everyone see a naked man here (or is it just me)?
(Orchis italica, otherwise known as The Naked Man Orchid)
© iStock/Carlos Pérez Romero

The names were clues and something to cling to on the edge of sheltering insanity. Still, these images had the potential of continuing to enter my dreams, so it was time to experience whatever part of spring I could bring to my limited world.

Is this a costumed bee on an orchid or the strange totality of the Laughing Bumble Bee Orchid?
(Ophrys bombyliflora from the Mediterranean.)
© iStock/Andi Edwards

The Real Flowers in Our Lives

As loyal OIC Moments’ readers might know, the past two blog stories have celebrated a connection to nature, no matter the circumstances. (See Recovering Our Awe of Nature and We’ll Always Have Paris.)

Following suit, we now move past scary lockdown dreams of monkey orchids and happy aliens to this spring’s reassuring flowers and gardens.

Discovering a private world of nature during lockdown
© vjonesphoto

People around the world rose to the challenge of seeking refuge in their own gardens or discovering nature wherever they happened to be sheltering. For some, like Virginia Jones in Alabama, going out to photograph the emergence of spring was “a welcome and safe way” to raise her spirits.

For Carol Starr in Maryland, who had a bit more freedom to wander, several gardens were within reach—the annual cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin, the towpath of the C&O Canal, and several open gardens.

A celebration of spring in Maryland
© Carol Starr

She was able to visit week after week to see the progression of blooms. She even brought nature to a blank page for all to see in her subsequent paintings, proving that there are many ways to share the beauty of spring.

Spring arrives by inviting creativity.
© Carol Starr

For Pamela Spurdon in the center of Paris, there were no woodside paths or formal gardens. Her world was more limited due to the strict confinement rules in France. But she connected to nature every day. She thanks the “awesome azalea that greeted me every single morning of the confinement: irrepressible joy of spring!”

The awesome azalea
© Pamela Spurdon

Gardeners Now and Forever

For those who are gardeners at heart, the connection with nature is a given, especially when there is a magical garden in the yard.

Three garden lovers on the Monterey Peninsula of California share a similar reflective theme during their shelter-in-place order.

Lynn Bohnen calls her garden “her savior” and explains that there is nowhere else she’d rather be during the stay-at-home order.

“I can’t feel my fingertips because I’m constantly digging with them; but to me, it’s pure joy,” she says. “It’s a very positive thing when you have time to reflect about what is really wonderful in this world and what really gives you great joy.”

Discovering what gives you joy
© Lynn Bohnen

Janelle Gistelli shares that same feeling of peace. “During this time of anxiety and stress, my garden has given me a place to “just be.” I can escape into the smallest details as I do my daily puttering and grooming, while I listen to the birds and wind chimes. My garden has been my solace during this time.”

Magic in one’s own backyard—a place to “just be.”
© Janelle Gistelli

Elizabeth Murray (author of several garden/creativity books) adds “My garden is a sanctuary of renewal, beauty, and joy. With the gift of slowing down I am also blooming with creativity, especially when I am fully present to draw and paint my garden.

Drawing and painting in a garden sanctuary
© Elizabeth Murray

Elizabeth has been making folding books and drawing flowers from her garden during this corona time as a way to be focused during the pandemic. Through Instagram and Facebook, she has introduced the idea to artists and garden lovers around the world.

The creativity of a folding book
© Elizabeth Murray

Generosity of Spirit

Every spring, Robin in Oregon gives away homegrown vegetable plants to her neighbors to get their summer gardens started. This year was no different, except that her friends couldn’t come to her house for pickup and there were no in-person chats.

Vegetable plants ready for spring delivery
© Robin Koontz

She had to deliver the plants to the road’s edge at a safe distance from each neighbor’s house. The reward in these challenging times, she says, was “knowing that we all would have a garden to tend to help keep us sane and healthy.”

Beth in Cambridge, Massachusetts inherited a truckload of daffodils as spring was emerging. She decided to brighten the day of all her neighbors by putting the flowers on the street and offering them to anyone who needed a smile of spring.

Generosity does, indeed, brighten the day.
© Beth Pendery

The Art of Celebrating Spring

Most of us missed our usual spring rituals, but nature prevailed. For many, the change in focus inspired a renewal/rebirth of creativity.

Mavis Negroni was not able to walk through her favorite Paris park this spring—the Jardins des Plantes.However she vividly remembers its beauty and the fact that it is “a frenzy of color and light in three seasons of the year.” We can feel that appreciation in her creative expression during this confinement.

A spring collage, perhaps inspired by the Jardins des Plantes
© Mavis Negroni

“I love visiting the tiny water features when the frogs mate and the tadpoles and dragonflies arrive,” she says. “I love the banter of crows and parrots, the shreiks of children, the stream of joggers, and the tai chi and fan classes.”

Donna Leiber, from Southern California, also shared a vivid corona tale in the form of a single rose, which she describes as a piece that shows both freedom and constraint.

Beauty in aloneness and strength in self-reliance
© Donna J. Leiber

“She needs no companions to be complete, keeps intruders at a safe distance with her thorns, and weathers many storms no matter how fragile and delicate,” Donna says of her rose. “I painted her during these surreal COVID-19 pandemic times to remind us that there can be beauty in aloneness and strength in self-reliance.”

Yes, spring came . . . just as promised. Not even a global pandemic could stop the natural rhythms of the earth.

Oh, I see. We shared a celebration of spring, inspired by flowers around the world. And, just like the single strong rose, we will weather the corona storm.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Meredith Mullins 6 Comments

Art of Travel/Nature Discovery/Worldwide Sites

May

Recovering Our Awe of Nature

by Joyce McGreevy on May 11, 2020

A sunrise in Ireland is awe-inspiring, a reminder that noticing nature every day reflects a cultural attitude of valuing the environment. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

What Does Nature Need Us to Notice?

Have you noticed it? While life in self-quarantine has restricted our movements, it has also unleashed our senses. As the range of our territory has contracted, our attention to the environment has enlarged.

We’ve had to slow down to the speed at which a flower grows, and now, something has begun to blossom. In moment by “oh, I see” moment: we’re regaining our instinct for the awe of nature.

A sapling in blossom in Ireland is an awe-inspiring sign of spring. a reminder of our instinctive need to notice the beauty of nature. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Who We Were

How dramatically can cultural attitudes toward nature shift? Consider this. Shortly before lockdown went global, researchers published a report that highlighted an overwhelming lack of connection between people and the natural world.

The report is British, but surely reflects many of us circa 2020 “BC”—Before COVID-19. For example, of the children questioned:

A doorframe beside a shed in rural Ireland offers a different perspective for noticing the awe-inspiring beauty of nature. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

• 90% rarely or never watched sunrises.

• 83% rarely or never smelled wildflowers.

• 77% rarely or never listened to birdsong.

Findings among adults weren’t much better:

• Around 57–79% rarely or never noticed sunrises, wildflowers, or birdsong.

• Likewise, few adults or children celebrated natural events, such as the longest day of the year, autumn harvest, and so on.

• Only 25–33% watched clouds, or stopped to appreciate the stars or the moon in the sky.

How We Were Changed

Nature certainly has our attention now. For evidence of this, look no further than our recent personal communications.

Social media pages once dominated by selfies and humblebrags are blooming with hollyhocks and supermoons. Brash videos give way to whispered narratives as wild creatures amble down driverless roads at rush hour. Snarky memes yield to quotes from nature poets.

Wherever we call home—urban, suburban, or rural—our online connections are trending toward awe in nature.

A postbox overgrown with native plants in Ireland is an awe-inspiring reminder that as the world went into lockdown during the pandemic, nature reasserted its power. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

One day I receive a text message from a relative who lives in a California suburb. Usually we’re rushed. Tapping out terse logistics even as we plan family gatherings. Ending messages with “xo” to cover all that we never say. But today, he observes:

“. . . Just by being home most of the time I have seen things I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. A bright yellow bird. A field mouse that I only noticed because I could see the flowers move . . . a lizard with feet like no other lizard in this environment . . . Silver linings, indeed. What would I notice if I wasn’t constantly doing so much?”

Sea stones and kelp on a beach in County Cork, Ireland evokes the idea that the smallest details in the environment can inspire us with awe and strengthen our connectedness to nature. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

What Difference Does Noticing Make?

Research shows that “noticing nature” and “nature connectedness” are strongly linked to practicing conservation. According to the British study, conducted by the University of Derby and the National Trust, the influence of these two factors is far greater than even the influence of time spent outdoors or knowledge and study of the environment.

As for one’s level of nature connectedness, a study at Ohio’s Oberlin College says it depends on three elements:

How we think about nature. Do we see ourselves as sharing the great tree of life, or as positioned separately atop a pyramid of life?
How we relate to nature. Do we consider nature as part of us, or as apart from us?
How we feel about nature. Do we experience a sense of wonder, concern, calm, curiosity, gratitude, reverence, or other such responses to nature?

A chair outdoors under the moon on the Irish coast is an invitation to notice and connect with the awe-inspiring beauty of nature, which in turn can influence our cultural attitude toward the environment, (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Noticing Details

Suddenly, we have time to ask ourselves such questions. We may even be discovering that we’ve always had time. Time to wriggle fingers in loamy soil, to take that morning walk, to notice the violet underside of a rain cloud. Time to hang laundry on a clothesline, trading the whir of machinery for the chirp of a meadowlark. Time to notice the movement of a field mouse among flowers.

A collage of Irish roadside ferns and sea shells is a reminder that noticing nature’s patterns fosters a cultural attitude of wanting to protect the environment and preserve its awe-inspiring beauty. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

We’re remembering how one living thing connects to another, and it’s prompting us to weigh costs and consequences. If I choose this instead of that, who and what are affected? What’s harmful, what’s helpful?

We’re revisiting priorities. What do I want my time to grow into? Do I really need all those items that go from store to storage?

We’re realizing we can only buy so much, wear so much, eat so much, do so much. Oh, I see: We’re re-encountering what truly sustains us.

A sign for a preserve on the gate to a field in rural Ireland evokes the importance of protecting nature, which is both awe-inspiring and fragile. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Putting Ourselves on Notice

Meanwhile, the call of our old lives is echoing. After lockdown, the moon will still be passing over us. Will we look up? After lockdown, the song of the smallest bird will still be richer than the loudest “tweet” online. Will we hear it? After lockdown, the sunrise will still illuminate Earth, revealing both what’s wonderful and what’s wounded. Will we attend to it?

How will our cultural attitudes toward nature shift? What notice will we take of our environment when the old distractions come clamoring? What, then, will we make of our rediscovered awe of nature? A pleasant but fading memory or an attentive new journey?

A sunset glimmering through a grove of sycamore trees in Ireland is awe-inspiring, a reminder to notice nature every day and night . (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

To see more of this area, visit @BallyshaneStays on Instagram.

Download “Noticing Nature,” the report, here.