This past week has been a full week here at the Edge. As part of our Staff training week, one of our first guides “Chris Mortimer” introduced us to some nature awareness activities. Each day in the morning and evening we were invited to go to our “Sit Spot” with a journal in hand and observe using all of our senses, life around us. This morning at my sit spot I focused on listening to the birds. I questioned why birds sing, especially in the morning and early evening? I watched and listened as the sun rose up over the lake, and this is the story I heard…..

Living high up in the trees, birds are the first to see the sun rise in the morning. They are like nature’s alarm clocks, and their role is to awaken life. Their songs together create a chorus inviting the web to awaken from it’s slumber. They arrive with spring as once again their role is to sing and awaken life….. seeds that have been covered by the winter snow, and animals in their dens hear these beautiful songs and emerge. The songs of joy are spread through the land and over the water from bird to bird reminding all of us that we each have a song to sing.

Their songs are fullest as spring moves towards summer diminishing as the summer moves toward fall. The birds also tell us when it is time to retire, and fall back asleep. They sing us to sleep with their lullabies as the sun begins to set. As fall sets in they fly to where they can sing life awake again in a different place. This is the reason they have wings to fly, otherwise it might be a much longer time before spring arrives again!