For some unbeknown reason, I woke up earlier than usual this morning. I was awake even before the sun was up. I lay on my bed for ten minutes, staring into nothingness and feeling a little pensive, and by 6.30am the sky had turned into a lighter shade of black tinged with some shades of blue. The bluish grey hues of the sky also seemed to stir the birds in the trees. Faint chirps and tweets of various sound frequencies and volume began to fill the air and herald the start of a new day.
I continued lying on my bed for a few minutes listening to these lovely avian tunes. I then decided to get off my butt and head to MacRitchie Reservoir for a morning walk. One of the things I love about where I live in Singapore is my proximity to MacRitchie. I love walking along the wooden-planked broadwalk that skirts the water and being surrounded by the trees that flank one side of the broadwalk.
In the past when I went jogging or walking there, I would take my iPod along. But I don’t do so anymore because I much prefer listening to the music of the forest and giving my ears – usually inundated by the sounds of radio, TV, traffic noise, people talking etc – a rest from all that urban cacophony.
Once I left my iPod behind and began to listen, I realised that the forest was like an orchestra with Mother Nature wielding the baton as conductor. Walking through different stretches of the forest gave way to different sounds in different sections, like the various movements in a symphony. At one point, the high frequency metallic sounds of some insects filled the air, like razor blades being sharpened. A little farther on, a variety of birds – all faceless musicians as I walked along the broadwalk – cooed, hooted, tweeted, chirped, and hollered in a myriad number of rhythms and melodies. In the water, a fish darts and a ‘dop’ sound echoes in the air from that quick movement.
I looked up at the sky, by now a cheery azure shade, and felt cheered. It was going to be a lovely Sunday. 🙂