I have a new love language. It is bird song and it is making my heart sing.
I have been given a gift from a friend that is priceless: Jennifer sends me videos via text of birds singing with a backing track of mother nature waking up at dawn.
It is that sweet and that simple, and it makes my heart soar with happiness when I hear little feathered ones making their own music.
I find myself grinning from ear to ear as I listen to the green vision of birds chirping and twirping and generally greeting daybreak with enthusiasm and their own secret language.
I am smitten with my personal texts and get excited when my phone dings as I run to see if it is from Jen.
In a fast world, these slow recitals are elixir for the soul.
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Last week, Jen captured the sounds of Australian Figbirds from Richards Park on Buderim. There was also a joyful frog as a backing track to the cacophony of bird song.
Other little packages of pleasure included a video of dawn at Imbil with sounds of the black-breasted button-quail in vine scrub; another with the sounds of dusky honeyeaters and wandering whistling ducks. Lucky me!
The texts do not have chitchat; there is no small talk about the weather. They are simply glorious bird song from a running creek or fields of green.
The best present a girl could ask for. They are innocent. Uncomplicated.
I have known Jen for 30 years and she was always ahead of the pack when it came to respecting the environment and finding joy and mental peace.
She and her husband bought a small house on a big rainforest block in Buderim because they wanted to hear their neighbours sing – their feathered neighbours, not the human ones.
My favourite part of their slice of nature is their duck-blue outdoor clawfoot bath. At night you can lie in it and watch the moon and the owls.
Not all presents cost money. Look and listen for our feathered friends in the trees. They are fragile and have to fight hard most days to survive the environment us humans have changed.
May birdsong be found in your heart and remain with you for the day.
Thank you, Jen.
Sami Muirhead is a radio announcer, blogger and commentator, wife and mum of three. The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sunshine Coast News.
