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The Silence That Spoke — a Glimpse of Wonder entry™ —


dljbsp

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During the global lockdown of 2020, San Francisco, a major bustling city, grew quiet in a way only a few could remember. Streets emptied. Trolleys sat still. The famous fog horns called into a silence that actually answered back, the echo not muted by traffic.

 

And across the bay, the Golden Gate Bridge — that red arch of motion and noise — suddenly sounded alive. Before, the constant hum of engines had swallowed every softer sound. But as traffic thinned . . . the bridge began to breathe again. Its cables thrummed gently in the wind, like the strings of an enormous musical instrument. Below, the tides murmured. Yes, you could hear the waves crashing hundreds of feet below. And from the brush-covered slopes came a sound long hidden: birdsong.

 

The white-crowned sparrows that live near the bridge had always sung through the noise. But now, with the noise muted, their voices changed. Researchers at Cornell University recorded them and found something remarkable — the sparrows were singing new songs. Their notes dropped lower, purer, and stronger. What had once been forced and thin became fluid again, stretching twice the distance. It was as if the birds had taken a deep breath and remembered who they were. They did not have to compete with the sounds of traffic.

 

Silence can do that — not erase, but restore.image.png.7c21ac4fe88708090db5862a8423f7cf.png

 

The bridge didn’t change, the birds didn’t change — the noise did. Remove the interference, and what was true had space to be heard. Creation had been waiting, patient as always, for humanity to pause long enough to listen.

 

It’s humbling to think about how much we miss when life grows too loud. The sparrows were not newly gifted; their melody was simply unmasked. What about us? How many quiet gifts of Jehovah wait beneath our own noise — beneath the endless hum of schedules, headlines, and notifications? This glimpse of the restorative power of his creations causes us to wonder, and praise him.

 

It’s no coincidence that Scripture links silence with praise. Psalm 65:1–2 says, “To you silence is praise, O God in Zion.” Some praise is sung; some is whispered; some is simply felt in the stillness. The sparrows’ song wasn’t new music — it was renewed music . . . born of quiet.

 

Maybe our worship deepens the same way. When the noise of worry fades, when explanations and arguments fall away, when we stop filling the air and start listening — other voices rise. Gratitude, peace, faith — all begin to sing again.

 

The world beneath the bridge was never mute. It was only waiting for room to speak.

 

 


Edited by dljbsp

2 Comments


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It's beautiful, David, form and content.

 

Once again, I learned 🤍 but did I understand correctly?

 

So, in the streets of San Francisco, the voice of the ocean offered a new sonic backdrop to the city during the pandemic? And for their part, the sparrows, no longer needing to create a new sound to be heard in the hustle and bustle of urban traffic, offered a unique, free concert to their own avian family and, incidentally, to the city's residents?

 

This idea that ambient noise steals the sound of life is magnificent, because it reveals the reality of everything in us that is distorted by the environment, habitat, and so many other factors. Does this mean that all animals living near large urban centers have modified their sound, their song and their way of communicating with each other?

 

When the time for restoration arrives, we mustn't miss the opportunity : who will we become, what 'me' will we encounter, what voice will come out of a repaired body?

And what a discovery when everyone we know experiences the same metamorphosis. Exponential love will emerge victorious.

 

I really LOVE the narrative voice. Simply, without the written text as support, those of us who are not English speakers run the risk of missing out on these glimpses of wonder, and it would be such a shame not to have access to them.

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3 minutes ago, Dolce vita said:

So, in the streets of San Francisco, the voice of the ocean offered a new sonic backdrop to the city during the pandemic?

 

I understood from the research that under normal conditions, you can’t hear the ocean crashing on the rocks from the Golden Gate Bridge because the city and traffic noise usually drown it out. During the shutdown, even the foghorns echoed clearly.

 

3 minutes ago, Dolce vita said:

And for their part, the sparrows, no longer needing to create a new sound to be heard in the hustle and bustle of urban traffic, offered a unique, free concert to their own avian family and, incidentally, to the city's residents?

 

The sparrows didn’t create a new song; rather, they sang much softer because they no longer needed to compete with the traffic noise. Scientists were able to record vocal qualities they had never captured before.

 

3 minutes ago, Dolce vita said:

Does this mean that all animals living near large urban centers have modified their sound, their song and their way of communicating with each other?

 

As for other animals, my research didn’t cover that, but I’ll be discussing another species that benefited — penguins — in an upcoming blog.

 

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