Listening is a lost art in our world. I know it. I love to talk. I can listen to myself talk for hours. I can forget to listen to other people. I can even forget to listen to what’s around me.
This is not a good survival habit. To be out in the forest, you need to learn how to listen. When I was doing more long distance running than I am now, I would run for hours on a trail that works its way up into the mountains around my house. It’s a trail popular with runners and with bikers, so sometimes I’d hear other humans around me. Often, I’d hear deer and grouse, even woodpeckers and owls. Once I saw a mother bear and her cub.
Work with your children to get back some of that skill of focused listening. By focused listening I mean that you’re looking around you with your ears. You’re listening for the meaning of sounds.
Stop in the forest and make a sound map of what you hear. Listen above you, below you, and around you in all directions. Write down what you hear if you wish. Write down what it sounds like: the motion of the sound, rather than what exactly it is. Over time, you will learn what certain types of sounds might mean. A gentle knocking on a tree around here means that a woodpecker is about.
Also, learn what sounds animals make and what they mean. Birds are one of the most revealing and numerous, and even if you’re in the city you likely have birds of some sort around you. Listen to them. When do they make different sounds? Does one sound mean that they are happy and another that they are alarmed? By listening to what the birds are telling you, you can determine what is going on in the forest.
How do you practice focused listening in the forest?