{"id":92,"date":"2013-03-11T10:44:46","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T10:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourbestlifenow\/?p=92"},"modified":"2013-03-11T10:55:43","modified_gmt":"2013-03-11T10:55:43","slug":"do-you-hear-the-birds-sing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/do-you-hear-the-birds-sing.html","title":{"rendered":"Do You Hear the Birds Sing?&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourbestlifenow\/files\/2013\/03\/singing-birds.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-93\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/352\/2013\/03\/singing-birds-300x266.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"266\" \/><\/a>Do you hear the birds singing in the quiet hours of dawn?<\/p>\n<p>For years, I have awakened between five and six every morning. It is my favorite time of the day. The world is filled with stillness. My mind is quiet and refreshed. It&#8217;s as if all I can hear is the silence around me&#8230;my soul silently absorbs the energy of emptiness.<\/p>\n<p>You need this power that comes from Presence &#8211; without the emptiness to fill your soul, you&#8217;ll live off the energy of an illusory environment &#8211; it looks energizing&#8230;driven as you will become \u00a0by its demands, your own self-created expectations, the expectations and demands of others quotas to meet, a bottom line to protect. It&#8217;s all so draining. As all illusions are. It WILL drain you.<\/p>\n<p>So, rise early, my friend. Make it your habit to awaken with the birds who from their branches and nests declare in perfect song the dawn of a new day.<\/p>\n<p>They are singing this morning. And, my heart sings with them.<\/p>\n<p>Do you hear the birds sing?<\/p>\n<p>Feel their song in these words? \u00a0If you&#8217;re still reading, you are most likely absorbing these words like a Marathoner might water after an exhausting twenty-six miles. You need rest and refreshment, too, my friend. You need a song&#8230;the song of the birds. Will you absorb the energy you know you need. It is here and it is free. \u00a0Christians call it Grace. Buddhists call it &#8220;nirvana.&#8221; Receive this Grace. It is inexhaustible. It is perfect bliss.<\/p>\n<p>For just a few moments, let the stream of God&#8217;s Eternal Presence gently flow over you this morning&#8230;let it flow within you&#8230;and envelope you with love&#8230;with life&#8230;with energy&#8230;with joy.<\/p>\n<p>Today, no matter how demanding the day becomes&#8230;when you have paused in the early hours of dawn just to listen to the birds sing, you will find their song is your Source.<\/p>\n<p>Do you hear the birds singing?<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;re singing <strong><em>your<\/em><\/strong> song. And, isn&#8217;t this the song Jesus hinted at when he said, &#8220;Look and listen to the birds of the air&#8230;listen to and observe the lilies of the field (Matt. 6)&#8230;they know and so sing the song my soul&#8230;your soul&#8230;needs to sing. Must sing.<\/p>\n<p>So, today, look with me for the birds&#8230;listen for their songs&#8230;they are our reminders that we are our interconnected&#8230;we are all connected to God&#8230;we are&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>UNIVERSE &#8211; the &#8220;uni&#8221; (ONE) &#8220;verse&#8221; (SONG).<\/p>\n<p>Blessed singing, my friend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you hear the birds singing in the quiet hours of dawn? For years, I have awakened between five and six every morning. It is my favorite time of the day. The world is filled with stillness. My mind is quiet and refreshed. It&#8217;s as if all I can hear is the silence around me&#8230;my&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":551,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[148,156,150,146,147,149,155,154,152,153,151],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-soul","tag-birds-sing","tag-blessed-singing","tag-dawn-of-a-new-day","tag-hear","tag-hear-the-birds","tag-my-heart-sings","tag-one-song","tag-universe","tag-with-energy","tag-with-joy","tag-with-life"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Do You Hear the Birds Sing?... - Your Best Life Now<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/do-you-hear-the-birds-sing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Do You Hear the Birds Sing?... - Your Best Life Now\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do you hear the birds singing in the quiet hours of dawn? For years, I have awakened between five and six every morning. It is my favorite time of the day. The world is filled with stillness. My mind is quiet and refreshed. It&#8217;s as if all I can hear is the silence around me&#8230;my&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/do-you-hear-the-birds-sing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Your Best Life Now\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-11T10:44:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-03-11T10:55:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourbestlifenow\/files\/2013\/03\/singing-birds-300x266.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"smcswain\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Do You Hear the Birds Sing?... - Your Best Life Now","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/do-you-hear-the-birds-sing.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Do You Hear the Birds Sing?... - Your Best Life Now","og_description":"Do you hear the birds singing in the quiet hours of dawn? For years, I have awakened between five and six every morning. It is my favorite time of the day. The world is filled with stillness. My mind is quiet and refreshed. It&#8217;s as if all I can hear is the silence around me&#8230;my&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/do-you-hear-the-birds-sing.html","og_site_name":"Your Best Life Now","article_published_time":"2013-03-11T10:44:46+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-03-11T10:55:43+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourbestlifenow\/files\/2013\/03\/singing-birds-300x266.jpg"}],"author":"smcswain","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/do-you-hear-the-birds-sing.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/do-you-hear-the-birds-sing.html","name":"Do You Hear the Birds Sing?... - Your Best Life Now","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/do-you-hear-the-birds-sing.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/do-you-hear-the-birds-sing.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourbestlifenow\/files\/2013\/03\/singing-birds-300x266.jpg","datePublished":"2013-03-11T10:44:46+00:00","dateModified":"2013-03-11T10:55:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/#\/schema\/person\/a79b0cba765879c3d1711d801e7b5018"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/do-you-hear-the-birds-sing.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/do-you-hear-the-birds-sing.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/do-you-hear-the-birds-sing.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourbestlifenow\/files\/2013\/03\/singing-birds-300x266.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourbestlifenow\/files\/2013\/03\/singing-birds-300x266.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/2013\/03\/do-you-hear-the-birds-sing.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Do You Hear the Birds Sing?&#8230;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/","name":"Your Best Life Now","description":"Beliefnet Voices","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/#\/schema\/person\/a79b0cba765879c3d1711d801e7b5018","name":"smcswain","description":"I'm an Author... Leadership Coach... Counsel to Non-Profits, Faith-based Organizations and Congregations... Adjunct Professor of Communication at the University of Kentucky... Spiritual Teacher... Inspirational and Motivational Speaker. But not always in this order. On the university campus, I teach students the Art of Communication. In my public talks, however, I teach leaders the Art of Leading; I teach everyone the Art of Living...so that... when you come to the end... and, you will come to the end... You're able to look back on life feeling... Fulfilled... Accomplished... Content, Peaceful, and Happy, too... Knowing your brief but important journey has made this world a more... Conscious... Compassionate, and... Charitable place. What could possibly be more important than this?","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.stevemcswain.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/author\/smcswain"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/551"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions\/95"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourbestlifenow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}