NATURES' CHILDREN: Stop and Listen

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We were standing in the middle of a country road that wound beside a weedy field. "Listen to that bird," my husband said. "I wonder what it is." We were new to birdwatching, and I hadn't learned to recognize bird songs, but I said without hesitation, "It's a bluebird." When he asked me how I knew, I couldn't really tell him. Bluebirds were rare back then, and we certainly hadn't encountered them in our backyard. But sure enough there he was, looking just like his picture in the bird book, a male Eastern bluebird. He was singing from his perch on a fencepost. When he flew, his blue wings were iridescent in the sunlight. We stood there quietly and watched him for a long time. I memorized the moment. Later as we drove home, I was half asleep when I suddenly remembered standing on a dusty country road with my mother. I must have been tiny, because in my memory, she was very tall. "Listen," she said. "That's a bluebird singing." Somehow the bluebird's song was imprinted on my little brain, only to surface years later as I stood on that country road with my husband.

You see, when I was a child, my father taught me to stop and look, but it was my mother who taught me to listen...... to the mockingbird, the bluejay, the cicada, the night cricket, to rain on the roof and silence on a snowy day. Perhaps she took such joy in listening because she was hard of hearing. Without her hearing aids, she could hear almost nothing. I remember once, in the midst of Christmas kerfuffle, I watched her sneak her hand up to her ear. She turned off her hearing aids and smiled as she sat in blissful silence.

Back then life was more peaceful. We could enjoy the kerfuffle and then retreat when we needed quiet. But today we live in a noisy world. So do our children. They are constantly bombarded with sound. There is no silence for them. They are busy, busy little folks with something always buzzing in their ears,...video games, T.V. shows and of course adults telling them important stuff. They have no way to cut off the noise. As a consequence, our children can't enjoy the sounds that are right outside their window. If we want them to appreciate the natural world, it's important to teach them to stop and listen. Stopping is hard for them. It means unpluging from devices. It means being still and just sitting for awhile. It also means being quiet in the world. And listening? Well, that takes practice, especially for children. We can help them with simple activities like going into the woods to hear leaves crunch underfoot, spending a quiet hour in the backyard, or taking a walk in the neighborhood to listen for birds.

Don't have a child handy? Try it yourself. Put away the computer. Turn off the news. Step outside and just be. You may be surprised by what you can hear ......

when you simply stop and listen.

Betsy Saunders

February 6, 2026