The novel coronavirus caught us all off guard. All of a sudden, we found ourselves locked up in our homes for months. I feel for those who live in the middle of mega cities, in small condo units or apartments with no access to nature for some “unwinding time”. Fortunately for me, I live in our ancestral home in a rural area surrounded by trees it feels as though we live in the midst of a mini-forest.
At the onset of this pandemic, I found myself often anxious. I kept reading the news and checking the number of cases. I constantly worry for my son because he is still very young, his regular vaccines are not even completed yet. I knew I needed to rise above my paranoia because I have to protect my son’s psyche and me being in that state will negatively affect him too. Children can absorb our energies.
So, I found solace in birding.
We have lots of birds around. Listening to them has been a part of all my waking hours. Last April though I began to seriously pay them the attention they deserved. Inspired by someone I follow on Instagram, I started birding using my DSLR camera. We’d often go for an afternoon walk with our son anyway so I asked hubby to look after our son while I excitedly look for and chase birds. They are everywhere! In fact, they are regular guests of the pomelo tree across my working table so I would place the camera on that table for easy grab in case there are birds I’d want to look at closely.
I found that birding, looking at birds very closely through a binocular or in my case a DSLR camera, is a totally different experience than just watching them with our naked eye. I saw a collared kingfisher hop on a mango tree and found nothing special about it until I looked at it through my camera and saw its magnificent dark blue feathers, its huge beak, its overall grandeur. And it’s beautiful! Another yellow bird I have yet to know the name looks so tiny but when I saw it through my camera, I found that the black feathers on its neck would actually glisten and turns blue when it moves. Watching it makes me extra giddy!
I also discovered that the Asian Glossy Starling have red eyes! I didn’t know it before I used my camera. It looks so pretty with its black feathers accented by its red eyes. They’d usually hop high up on the coconut tree so until now I have not taken a good shot of them with the limited reach of my camera lens.
“Birding made me live in the present moment.”
Aside from getting to see the details of the birds’ physical appearance, I gained lots of benefits from birding. In searching for birds, I became more attuned with the present moment. The usual clutters of my mind would tend to disappear because I would focus on listening intently for any sign that there is one nearby. It also enabled me to move more. Our usual walk is short but if I’m birding, I tend to walk much farther and much longer, sometimes until twilight.
“Birding is meditative.”
Birding brought me a different kind of joy. It’s meditative in a sense that my eyes and ears are focused on finding them instead of my mind just drifting away at times, unconscious of the sight and sound around. As a result, I became more relaxed afterwards.
It is such a privilege for me to have this kind of environment and activity at a time when the uncertainties and fears brought by this pandemic tend to paralyze us.
Wherever you are right now, I hope you are finding hobbies and activities that can divert your mind from this predicament that we are all in. For some, it can be extremely challenging to stay positive but now more than ever we need to protect our mental health.
May we find joy in the tiniest of blessings and the simplest of things.
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