Welcome to Emergence Magazine Summer of Practice, a special series of guided audio practices.

I'm Emanuel Vaughn Lee, host of this podcast, an executive editor of Emergence Magazine,

located on the unseated ancestral lands of the Coast Miwok people in present-day Marin County. Biologist and author David George Haskell calls the practice of listening to other species,

the original augmented reality. In opening our minds to the language of the species around us, we can experience

connection and meaning that far transcends anything offered by an electronic substitute. Paying

attention to the tongues of the more than human, he says, we honor an inheritance of deep listening,

bequeathed by a lineage of ancestors extending back hundreds of millions of years.

This week, we're sharing the next installment in our Summer of Practice podcast series.

This episode is an adaptation of a practice David wrote for us called

Listening to the Language of Birds, which invites you to attune to the bird call in your home,

become aware of the ecological rhythms and connections around and within you,

and step into a sense of belonging

as the conversations of humans and birds intertwine.

The audio for this practice runs for about 15 minutes, including my guidance through each step and

timed silence for you to engage with them. I encourage you to take longer to sink into and

explore each prompt, and so feel free to pause the audio at any point if you feel you'd like

to take a little bit more time with it.

This practice offers you an opportunity to connect with the landscape and living beings around you.

For that reason, I encourage you to disable notifications on your phone for the duration of the episode. And use either the speaker or a single bud of your headphones

so that you're still able to engage with the sounds around you.

As with any time spent outdoors, you are responsible for your own well-being and safety.

Be smart about where you choose to complete each practice.

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