Linger Listen and Watch

 

‘I often see willow warblers here,’ Hazel exclaimed enthusiastically. ‘Across the road, there are sometimes ospreys. Oh, do you hear the call of the buzzards?’

I had to admit it. I wouldn’t know a willow warbler if he warbled in my face. I wouldn’t recognise an osprey, and the word buzzard reminds me of a hunchbacked vulture in American cartoons.

This weekend, I hear, is specially set aside for UK residents to count the feathered friends in their gardens, identifying how many of each species they see. I would love to do that, but once I got past the woodpecker, blackbirds and blue tits, I would struggle to identify many others visiting our bird feeders.

‘I’ve got an app,’ she admitted. ‘Before lockdown, I didn’t have time to linger, to listen, and to watch.’

BL. Before Lockdown. AL. After Lockdown, we may be significantly changed people, if we are fortunate enough to have had the time and space to linger, listen and watch.

I think I’ll download that app, and have a go at identifying ‘our’ birds. Then, AL, perhaps I’ll have an opportunity to take a walk with one of the heroes of the pandemic – an NHS worker, a teacher, a home-schooling parent. I’m sure that the healing benefits many of us are finding in nature, will be efficacious for those who will stagger, exhausted, out of the demands of these dark days.

Don’t despise the days of small things, the Bible advises. God is speaking peace and beauty constantly through the detail and the glory of his world. May we emerge from Lockdown more attuned to the quiet knock of the Lord at the door of our hearts. May we attain a balance in our lives which frees us to take the time to invite Jesus in to sit and share supper with us. And with him as our dinner guest, may we be enriched as we linger, listen and watch.