Crickets, Time, and Paying Attention
This time of year, the chorus of crickets is a nightly affair.
It’s evocative. It speaks of every summer evening there ever was.
As it turns out, there is more to cricket’s song than the equivalent of “Hey, baby!” in High Cricket.
Think about the speed at which a cricket lives: at room temperature, its heart beats many times faster than that of a human being. It lives only about 90 days.
So slow it down.
Slow it down until the sound is at the relative speed of a human life.
And what it becomes is angelic.
The cricket’s song reminds me to slow down and pay attention. Life is fleeting. There are magnificent things happening around me almost constantly.
Look for wonders, friends. They’re all about us.
Mark Green
Author of ATHEOPAGANISM: An Earth-Honoring Path Rooted in Science and ROUND WE DANCE: Creating Meaning Through Seasonal Rituals, Mark Green is the initiator of the Atheopagan path and editor at the Atheopaganism blog. He volunteers as a staffer to the Atheopagan Society Council to support the growth of Atheopaganism throughout the world. In his home of Sonoma County, California, in the occupied ancestral lands of the Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok peoples, he is best known as an environmental activist and founder of Sonoma County Conservation Action, the largest environmental activism group in his region. He continues to work in the conservation sphere, focusing particularly on protection of natural landscapes on California's federal public lands.
4 Comments
anonymous
This may not be quite what it seems: http://www.snopes.com/critters/gnus/cricketsong.asp
Might want to try recording some crickets and slowing them down yourself.
Atheopagan
I read the Snopes article, and it says that some versions–including Jim Wilson’s–are indeed just crickets slowed down. Others include a woman’s voice.
Kate
You find the most amazing things to share with your readers, and this was no exception. Thanks…
Atheopagan
Thanks!