I should be blogging about the visit this past weekend of Kathy’s Aunt Linda (which was such fun) but that will have to wait for another day. Instead, I find myself wanting to write about a neat moment which occurred this morning as I was exiting my car and entering Carthage’s Johnson Arts Center to start another work week. It had been a good morning thus far, with an interesting live interview for today’s morning show (but on a very serious topic- Robert Kennedy and the Politics of Poverty) and a lighter interview I recorded with the president of Gateway Technical College and the school’s newest student ambassador- but unfortunately, that second interview got underway about ten minutes late, which meant that by the time we were finished I was rushing like crazy to get to Carthage in time for my first voice lesson. (I promise you- I did not speed during the actual commute- but in every other leg of the trip I was rushing as much as I could.)
As I approached the entrance to the building, which is adjacent to the loading dock (not the most picturesque, postcard-worthy place on campus) I realized suddenly that I was hearing something that sounded like birds singing- lots and lots of them. But it didn’t seem likely, given the fact that I was standing on a fairly wide expanse of concrete. And then I looked up at the outside wall of the Johnson Arts Center and the adjacent Siebert Chapel, and that’s when I noticed all of the bird’s nests in various corners of the outer walls of the building. I’m dusting off a very moldy corner of my brain (so I could be wrong) when I say that these nests appeared to be for swallows. They’re not built out of grass and twigs like a robin’s nest, but rather fashioned out of clay and mud into a hollow globe with a good sized doorway on the one end of it. I saw maybe a dozen different individual nests up in the “rafters” (so to speak) in and out of which birds were flitting- perhaps with food for youngsters inside.
It was so fun to notice this – and I so easily would have missed the sight altogether in my typical haste – but then I realized that these nests didn’t really account for the fervent chorus I was hearing. There had to be still more birds than I was seeing. And that’s when I caught sight of Siebert Chapel, which actually rests right on top of the J.A.C.- and up along the top edge of the main stain glass window was a whole line of these same kind of bird nests – and that’s where this amazing sound of singing was coming from. I just stood there and listened to that beautiful sound with a mixture of wonder and gratitude . . . as well as regret that I so seldom find time for such moments in my life. Very few of us do, but I’m probably among the worst offenders when it comes to rushing through life rather than dancing. It brings to mind something that former pastor- now bishop Jeff Barrow said in a thank you note he emailed to those who helped with his installation service. In his last paragraph, where he talked about the need for all of us to get on with the important work before us, he shared this quote from a certain Pastor Elias: “In the United States you have all the watches. In Africa, we have all the time.” It was so delicious today to find myself taking a few seconds away from work and worry – to follow the lead of our African brothers and sisters – and listen to the birds singing.
pictured above: just a few of the bird’s nests which adorn the outside of Siebert Chapel.