Our home sits in the forest. We are fortunate to live in such a beautiful place. At the bottom of our lot there is a little creek. A large tree fell over the creek many years ago. When we first moved out there the grandchildren all loved going down to the creek with me and one of the favorite things we have done over the years is walk out over the tree, over the middle of the little creek, sit on the tree and play what I call the “Listening Game”.
The “Listening Game” amounts to sitting on the tree, sitting quietly for a few minutes, listening to what the woods is saying to you and then telling a story you heard from the woods. It’s been a favorite game for all our grandchildren and even to this day with the youngest being sixteen and fourteen they all love going down to the Listening Tree and playing the game.
At first, it’s hard for them to just sit quietly. It takes some effort to get children and teenagers to learn to sit quietly. Once I get them to sit quietly the next challenge is to get them to “listen” to the woods. At first they protest to me that the woods don’t speak and there isn’t anything to listen to. It takes more effort but I convince them to try and to start hearing “the voices of the forest”. At first, it’s the sound of the birds, the leaves falling in the fall, the trickle of the creek, and the rustling of the leaves as a squirrel scurries about. It doesn’t take long before they realize there are lots of sound in the woods and listening does make a difference. The final step is to convince them to listen for long ago tales lost in the woods but still present. It’s a whole new level of “listening” but eventually they learn to hear a “story” from the woods and then to spin it and share it with the rest of us sitting on the tree. Now you see why I call it “The Listening Tree”. Over the years my grandchildren have become better and better at listening to the woods and sharing amazing stories they hear the woods speaking to them.
We all need to learn how to listen to the world around us. I love sitting in the forest and listening to the sounds and the stories the woods tells to me. There are sounds in the city too. Of course, the sounds of cars and trucks and buses and street cars and cacophony of voices, and all the sounds of the city are easier to hear and louder but the city “speaks” too. We just have to learn how to listen.
Long ago, our ancestors learned how to listen to the forest, and the towns and cities and the world around them in order to survive. We are only fully in the world when we learn how to listen to the world and to be a part of the world. Do you listen? Do you really listen? If so, wonderful, there is a lot to hear. If not, why not join me on the “Listening Tree”? You don’t have to come to my house and walk out on the fallen tree, you just have to practice “listening”. Who knows, maybe you’ll hear the voice of the Lord.
God bless you for your faithfulness and for sharing your blessings with others.