It’s morning and the birds are calling. While they may actually be talking to each other, they don’t realize they are also calling me to reminisce. The farmer has the rooster; I have the crow.

I love listening to the sounds of crows, though I am sure I would feel less friendly to them if I were a farmer with acres of land that needed protection from them. The crows speak of the outdoors, which is a good place to be. They remind me of times as a kid playing in the woods near my home, of camping trips (there is nothing like breakfast cooked over an open fire, tending the bacon and eggs while the crows caw-caw for the world to hear), of hikes and more. The crows remind me that I don’t live in the city, and I like to retreat even further from the city.

One of the features that I like most of the game cameras that I have at my little “place away from places” in the Piney Woods is the sound recordings that go with the short video captures.  There, too, the sound of the crows, and many other birds, are recorded along with the view of other animals moving by the camera’s view:  racoons, hogs, bobcats, coyotes and such. The crows’ call becomes the soundtrack.

Listening to life is more than just listening to one’s own life experiences and the people therein; it is listening to the sounds of life that accompany the experiences of life. For example, the trips to the playground with kids are best remembered with the sounds of their laughter as they made the swing go oh-so-high. For every experience, there are sounds to be heard and remembered.  Listen…to life.