The singing birds outside my upstairs bedroom window were my happiness alarm today. They woke me with their bamboo branch symphonies. I love relating the sounds of nature to instruments in an orchestra. “I thank you God for this most amazing day, the leaping greenly spirits of trees and for the blue dream of sky,” e e cummings.

It was a little too cool to eat on the porch this morning so I ate my waffles in the kitchen. When I walked out on the porch, I was gifted with a beautiful cloudless, deep blue sky morning, bathed in a bright clear sunshine. I sat on the porch in one of my swings thinking the Lord has outdone himself. There is absolute silence in the yard. Not a bird is singing, not a leaf is rustling, no intruding sounds from the modern world. Then I think, God is praying during this quietness. I can hear a faint chime of a wind chime in the distance like the high key notes on a piano and a low rumble from the train tracks of a long gone locomotive. But in my yard it’s as silent as a morgue. I think Mother Nature and her planet earth have their own music if we just listen. I hear it every time I sit quietly in the swing. As God said his morning blessing, I said a prayer of thanks for another day on this glorious earth.

William Shakespeare said, “The earth has music for those who listen.” I hope you are listening. And I hope you’re hearing the music. I enjoyed the morning’s silence. I think we all need more reflective silence in our lives. Now the symphonies have started. A jet black crow and a red tailed hawk are singing a duet as they circle each other in the blue cloudless sky. The songbirds are singing, the finches are arguing and calling to one another. I hear the whistling wings of the doves as they land in the yard. The wind chimes are pinging softly in the breeze. The sleeping leaves in the street have waked up and the wind is racing them clickety-clack down the street. Three large bumble bee queens are buzzing around the pansies gathering pollen.

Nature has a way of bringing us peace. I think we can feel God in the wind, in the warm sunshine, in the rain drops, the booming thunder. I definitely felt his presence in the peaceful quietness of the porch swing today. I’ve never experienced such silence during my porch ponderings. Everything was so still and bathed in warm sunshine. I felt like I was in Mother Nature’s cathedral. I just sat here listening for the first musical sound to wake the silence like the opening hymn bringing a church service alive.

Bible scripture counsels us to find God’s presence in the quietness of our lives. Psalm 46:10 reads, “Be still, and know I am God.” Isaiah 30:15 states, “In quietness and trust is your strength.” We find peace in the silence of trusting God’s wisdom. I think God speaks to me in the quiet moments of my life through the beauty of his creation. I see the songbirds and marvel at their glorious plumage and their lyrical songs. I watch the pansies raise their velvet blooms in the sun’s warmth and thank the Lord for coloring my world. God is always talking to our hearts even when it feels we’re surrounded by his silence. Mother Teresa writes, “In the silence of the heart God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you.”

“Silence is God’s first language; everything else is a poor translation. In order to hear that language, we must learn to be still and to rest in God…” — Thomas Keating