What birds can teach us about celebrating life - every single morning
Happy Tuesday to you!
Let’s talk about birds.
Have you ever asked yourself why birds actually do sing in the morning? My husband, the cat, and I wonder about this every day at 5am! 😅
With the sun announcing its upcoming rise, a lovely concert of of 'chirps' and 'peeps' begins, regularly supported by a choir of squirrels who - rather loudly and a bit monotone in their creative expression - enter the cacophony, and shout their good mornings at each other, too. 😁 Scientists call this the "dawn chorus". Birds could sing at any time of day, but during this particular window, their songs seem to be louder, livelier, and more frequent. While the cat gets super excited, and makes sure to wake me up with more precision than a Swiss alarm clock, my husband puts in earplugs and swears revenge, especially to the squirrel family that lives right next to our bed room. 🐿️ 😅
"I made it. I am still here."
Scientists believe that birds sing in the morning to tell their friends that they made it through the night.💖 Singing is an essential part of bird life, like using words is for us, but for their little bodies, it is a costly activity in terms of time and energy. Thus, chirping away at dawn is almost a way of saying, "I'm still here" ... Maybe that is the same reason why we sing, too, why we create art, write books and tell stories - as a way of saying, "I made it. I'm still here. I AM ALIVE." 🌺🌿
We are not inventors, but latecomers to the musical scene.
Humans have always been inspired by the sound of birds singing. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, for example, owned a pet starling, and in his notebooks, he recorded a passage from the Piano Concerto in G Major that the bird 'freestyled' for him. Mozart wrote "That was beautiful" next to the starling's version...When his bird died, Wolfgang was not only very upset, but sang hymns beside the birdy's grave, and read a poem he had written for it. So if a musical genius like Mozart admired and learned from a little feathered being, its seems likely that early humans learned from them, too, when we invented the first human music.
A raving ornithologist - made in Germany
A contemporary example continuing Mozart's tradition is Dominik Eulberg. A bird enthusiast and natural conservationist by day, and international DJ at night, his sound is intricately linked to the natural world. 🌺 He uses organic rhythms and samples to create sophisticated electronic music - and you can feel the depth, warmth and love of his compositions. Moving from bird watching in the wild into his woodland high tech studio, Eulberg is one of the few DJs I have ever heard of, who bring the sound of birdsong to a dance floor! 🧚♀️
One of my favourite MINIMALISTIC TRACKS of his, including an absolutely mesmerizing video meditating on the beauty of nature, is "Goldene Acht" (in English: Golden Eight). Put in your headphones, lean back, and enjoy! 🦋
You can listen to the full album "Mannigfaltig" here.
And don't miss out on his AMAZING website - trust me, you haven't seen a DJ's website like this ever before! And if you want to read the poem Mozart wrote for his pet starling, click here.
Thanks to my lovely friend Param, who opened up the world to raving ornithologist from the Mother Land to us! ❤️
So why don't you get up early tomorrow morning, and listen, with your eyes closed, to the dawn chorus near your house? It is time that we appreciate the little singers - as every day, they celebrate nothing but the fact that they are alive. We truly have so much to learn from them. 🙏💖
Have a chirpy start into the day, and
With love from Goa,
Isabelle 🌿
