......immersed in cicadas

Yogis,
As I sit here on the floor in my home, windows shut, I am being serenaded. Not by my wireless speaker but by the mating call of the seventeen year cicadas. A steady hum that can’t be blocked out by going inside…..not that I would want to.

They are early risers, joining the robins and cardinals as soon as dawn brightens the sky, which happened to be 5:00 am this morning. I only know that because my eyes flew open, unsure what had woken me, until I remembered. Ah yes, another day of cicada calls. I watched at the other end and realized they slowly begin to taper off, surely exhausted, around dinner time. Like us, their day begins to wind down as the sun begins her journey down .

When they first arrived my ears heard the hum. But over time I was reminded of the first time I went to the symphony as a young girl. As the curtain rose and the conductor guided those first notes I was literally brought to tears by the overwhelming beauty created by the union of the instruments. Slowly though, I could lean into the sound and begin to hear the violins. I set my eyes on the first violin to see if I could hear only her.  At the time I was a student of the violin and I was being shown how the seemingly small sound I created each day in my living room, when joined with others, could cause emotion. Create change.

Sounds are vibrations, and although we equate them with our ears, they enter our bodies from many points and affect our vibration. Our internal note.

My maternal grandmother was deaf from childhood. I remember one time being with her and there was a band playing. At one point it became quite loud and she turned and told us she could feel it! Even without our sense of hearing we are moved by sound. Which is why I know the cicadas are affecting us.

I decided this week to immerse myself in the cicada symphony. I meditated in the morning with the window open and used their song as my focal point. I quietly mulched and weeded and relaxed into their buzz. I took time to sit on my sitting tree, lean back, close my eyes and open myself to receive their gift. No resistance.

It’s like one of those moments when you turn your radio all the way up and let a song take you over!

Like the symphony I began to hear the different tones. The waves of intensity, like the summer heat, roll toward me and then slowly recede. The changes in volume as I walked beneath the trees. I could tell if one was close by and even observed a mating dance and heard three different notes they can produce. Beginning to feel my inner vibration match theirs.

Surrounded by the hum twelve hours a day, day in and day out for an entire month, clearly affects us whether we are aware or not. I am choosing to be aware……

It will seem so quiet when they leave.

Vibrating,
SARAH

Cicada Dance