I Heard Singing In The Woods

One of those natural occurrences that on first glance looks man-made

Six inches of water rushed over the Gulley Bridge.   I hasn’t rained a lot recently and it hasn’t been warm enough for a melt, so I didn’t expect all that water.

I only had time for a half hour walk, so I decided to use the neighbors bridge.  But I’d have to climb over the fence and Fate couldn’t follow me.  The sheep were in the pasture and she was busy watching them, so I left her and went into the woods alone.

Over the fence and across the small wooden bridge, I climbed up the hill through the tangles of Japanese Honeysuckle.

Then I stopped at the big pine.

My mind had been restless all day.  Anxiety spinning it in circles.  There was just enough room for me to squat between the roots of the big pine.  I leaned my back against the trunk.  I couldn’t have been more comfortable if I was sitting in a big stuffed chair.

And, somehow, I wasn’t cold.  The temperature was in the teens the last time I looked, but embraced by the roots and trunk, I was warm.

I watched the sun moving thought the trees, throwing shadow and light on the stone wall even further up the hill.  I could hear the distant whoosh of a car on Route 22 and the almost imperceptible drone of an invisible airplane.

And then I heard singing.

There were many voices, a chorus of people singing.  I could hear their voices, but not their words.  I got the feeling that the people were walking as they were singing.  I imaged a group of ten or twenty people walking through the woods singing.  As if the singing and the walking were both necessary for the other.

But I didn’t believe my ears.

I thought of Rip Van Winkle and fairies.  Maybe it was the music  from the radio of a passing car, maybe  the sound of the plane filtering through the bare branches sounded like singing.

But I knew none of those things made any more sense than what I was hearing.

It probably didn’t even last a whole minute, and then the singing was gone.  I sat for a while longer, silent, listening, watching.

When I began to feel the chill that I should have felt all along, I got up to go back home.

Down the hill, across the bridge, and over the fence into the back pasture.  The sheep were still there and so was Fate, looking at me as if I had never left.  Begging me to tell her to “get the sheep”.

I don’t know where the singing I heard came from, but I don’t doubt I heard it.

I suppose it could have been similar to how sometime I see something in nature that looks man-made, but when I get closer to it, I can see it’s a natural occurrence.  Maybe there are sounds in nature that can fool my ears into thinking it’s people singing in the same way.

That actually makes more sense to me than anything else I can think of.

 

 

14 thoughts on “I Heard Singing In The Woods

  1. Once, in the middle of the night, I was awakened by a flute playing, right outside my bedroom window. I live in a (semi)rural village and there is no house nearby. Being in New Mexico, I immediately thought of Kokopelli. Then the music stopped and I thought I imagined the whole thing. But then every dog in a 5 mile radius started barking. At something? Someone? I finally chalked it up to a wrinkle in time.

  2. A lovely essay and I am so happy that you heard the singing. You know you have a book in you with these essays and pictures that you take. I would love to read it some day. Maybe the Seasons and Thoughts from the Woods?

  3. I think the singing you heard was probably angels. They sing all the time especially when they are with each other. You just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

  4. You have some VERY GREAT photos on this blog page, starting with this beautiful sun thru the trees. I especially love your pics of Jon, Bud , and Fate Thank you!! Annie
    P.S. Can’t say that I’ve ever heard singing in the woods, but with how tuned in you are to other creatures and other dimensions, I’m sure you hear things that the rest of us don’t. Just like our beloved dogs hear and are so aware of worlds to which normal humans are oblivious.

  5. i love your post…
    i hear plants and trees singing all the time, and one time i heard a hallelujah chorus sing
    the leonard cohen song as if the plants were thanking me for loving and nuturing them..
    my garden\, like my dog is a part of me and just like my dog and i communicate way beyond words so does nature…
    believe you heard them
    they knew you were listening and ready to receive their song….

    1. Wow Rosie, your experiences sound truly wonderful! I feel I am definitely open too hearing their songs now and will be listening with trusting ears.

  6. Maria, it was so spooky it wasn’t even scary, if you know what I mean. It just left me bewildered and enchanted.

  7. Of course you heard the singing. The things you see and hear as a very sensitive and intuitive woman are true. Walking and riding my mare through the redwood forests have allowed me the pleasure of hearing the music and voices of whomever is there with me. It makes me feel good to know that you hear all of that too – what a magical gift.

    1. Wow, Linda, the idea of riding your mare though the redwood forests sounds magical in itself. Maybe now that I’ve heard it, and trust that I did, I will be open to hearing more.

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