I LOVE technology! I LOVE hardware and I LOVE software.
I LOVE using my computer and downloading an app or the latest software updates to see what is new. Some are useful and others are downright annoying. But I don’t know unless I try them. Many of my discoveries I now use on a daily basis to make things more efficient for me.
We also use our phones for so much.
Our dishwasher pings Jane’s phone when it has finished its cycle or has run out of salt. We can plan our journey using satellite navigation with the added bonus that our route will dynamically avoid traffic jams and roadworks. I am alerted by the sound of In The Mood by Glenn Miller on my Apple iPhone when it is time for me to collect my grandson from school.
I generally find and use ‘productivity’ apps, but I was told about one that I should try which wasn’t on my radar; I often go around with my ears detuned from everyday sounds; we all do, I suspect. With traffic noise, for example, our brains filter out the constant drone in the hope that we hear more important sounds better. Nature, too, is filtered out particularly the birdsong which is all around us.
Well, imagine my amazement when Jane said look at this app. As she pressed the record button on her phone, one by one the names of the birds which the phone’s microphone picked up were displayed on the screen. As the birdsong continued, that particular bird was highlighted making it easier to distinguish the species from its unique sound.
I’m not a birdwatcher but this technology opened my ears (and eyes) to the world around me which, for 60+ years I have enjoyed but mostly filtered out. I now know what a blackbird sounds like. I can identify a wren’s song. Finches are a breeze!
For me it is like I have been given a Godwink to say ‘Wake Up! Birdsong is one of the greatest natural sounds on the planet. Listen and learn!”
So, that is what I am doing this month of June. Enjoying our avian friends living amongst us. Appreciating what God has given us in the diversity of nature and waking up to His call.I hope you stop and listen too!
