I watched this Bulbul singing episodically. It looked around and gave away a few bird calls. The looking around was the way it got ready for its next bird call.
That is when it occurred to me that its song had an inner connection. It was not following its habit. It was purposeful to call for pairing!
The language within us is truly a melody. When we can consciously bring it out, it can be tuneful in the listener's ears.
'Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were with salt so that you may know how you should respond to each person'(Colos.4:6). That was not what happened a few days back, when a friend called me to tell me about a national event he was planing to organise on the Zoom platform to discuss about poverty and our response. Having listened to him, I found myself restless. I had a few conversations with him earlier about the need to offer a support system for health care professionals who are weary and tired after an extra vigilant life style they practice on account of the COVID 19. My conversation with him was not seasoned with grace. I was not a gentle listener that I wanted to be.
I revisited my behaviour. He called me because he considered me as an 'elder'. I behaved like a disturbed person 'full' of myself. I remembered a passage in the Bible about conversation: 'In all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified sound in speech which is beyond reproach, in order that the opponent may be put to shame having nothing bad to say about us' (Titus 2:7-8). A sober way of relating to friends and foes alike! Another passage that helped to return to my sense was, 'But let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger..'(James 1;19).
I became conscious of the damage I created through my inappropriate conversational language. 'If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and ye does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, the man's religion is worthless' (James1:26).
The bird call of theBulbul had three variants. A loud call, a throaty chirp that was continuous when tis pair was near and a third signalling to its pair to fly away.
The language is for communication. It is language which builds or disturbs relationship. '...the tongue is a small part of the body and yet it boasts of great things. Behold how great a forest is set aflame by such a fire'(James 3:5).
What the Bulbuls brought to my attention is to bring a melody to the listener's ear by speaking kindly, gently, and regardfully, but preferring to hear rather than rushing to speak!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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