Some time ago, I focused on the Norwegian writer Jon Fosse, who won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature. He lives in Bergen, a small city with a population of just over 10,000 on the west coast of Norway, where it rains nearly 300 days a year, according to the source. Rain, fjords, winds, long nights, and very few people, Fosse, who lives in such an environment, thinks more about the relationship between man and nature.
It is there that man is fully integrated into nature, or in other words, he is a very small part of nature. Perhaps for this reason, Fosse's writing is calm and concise, and seems to be mixed with a bit of the wetness of the sea breeze. Compared to us now, how long has it been since we have been running around for work and life every day, paying attention to the nature around us and listening to the songs of birds?It's a feeling of being disconnected from nature. If we have the opportunity to return to nature, we may be able to feel its impact on our life. British writer Charlie Corbett's "12 Birds, **You" tells such a warm experience.
Charlie Corbett is a freelance writer, journalist and speaker. He came from a family of livestock farmers and spent his childhood on farms in the North Wessex Mountains and the Isle of Mull. After studying history at the University of Edinburgh, he left his farming base and spent the next 20 years reporting on business and finance in cities around the world, but he was still the country boy at heart.
After the sudden death of his mother, Charlie Corbett went through a period of anxiety and anxiety, and his outlook on life was shaken. In a moment of despair, he lay on a lonely mountain, the melancholy drizzle seeping into the depths of his soul. In an instant, he heard the lark's song, a high-pitched, cheerful cry echoing through the air, pulling him away from his dark thoughts. The beauty of nature made him focus on reality, and suddenly it became clear. In the book "12 Birds, **You", Charlie selected 12 species of birds that saved him, recounted his chances with them, and pointed out a ** path to people who are going through a trough: bird watching, meditation, and happiness will stop on your shoulders.
Charlie shows the reader that as long as we know how to seek, how to listen, we can find happiness. These 12 species of birds are not rare, but ordinary birds that can be seen everywhere in our lives, such as larks, magpies, house sparrows, hairy-footed swallows, willow warblers, red-bellied gray finch, etc. From solitary larks to bickering house sparrows, the book explores the place of these birds in history, culture, and landscapes, and highlights the physical characteristics of the birds and the most likely places to encounter them.
For example, in the article on the magpie, the author talks about the magpie's illness with his mother, the superstition of the magpie, and the family's acceptance of the mother's deterioration to the author's reconciliation with the magpie. In British culture, a magpie chirping is a bad omen that means something bad is about to happen. At the time of my mother's diagnosis of a malignant disease, "I don't deny that I saw a magpie outside my bedroom window, and all sorts of irrational imaginations arose from it. Because in Scotland, seeing a magpie near a window is a sign of death. Charlie wrote. And in getting along with his mother, he felt more and more that his mother's heart was like a solid magpie's nest, shielding from pain and allowing the children to live in a happy, safe and comfortable atmosphere.
Later, Charlie survived this difficult time and could record those painful and confused days in the chirping of magpies and the soft cry of bald-nosed crows. He has realized that there must be some cold, dark and drizzly days in life, but the misty and sunny times will return. Like the two colors of the magpie — white and black, "sad and joyful, dark and light." I can't just one and not the other. It is necessary to meet the opponent. ”
Although I am writing about birds, I might as well understand that this book is about how to deal with the twists and turns of life as a human being. Birds make cosmic noises that pull us back to this dimension that we have neglected on a daily basis. They bring pure joy, the experience of rebirth. It reminds us of the limitations of our own perspectives and the beauty of the world. Even with the once annoying, ubiquitous grey sparrow population, they still bring fireworks to the rough everyday with their chirping;Or, we can hear the song of the thrush during the dark hours of the winter solstice, and the night makes its song even louderNot to mention the beautiful song of the curlew, which is said to heal wounds in the wasteland. Charlie said that he hopes that readers can also feel the pure joy that comes from the birds when they read the book.
This popular science book is written and **, in fact, it is still a topic of how to overcome the joys and sorrows of life. Different people naturally have different ways, some people can stretch their bodies and minds in **, some people can sublimate their lives through running, and some people can only rely on the medicine of time. What Charlie shows through this book "12 Birds, **You" is that if someone is willing to observe and get close to these ordinary birds, they can also get ** from it.
There may be some time when we look up at the birds, listen to their chirps, let them pull us along, and briefly return to nature for a short walk.
Reporter: Xu Min Editor: Xu Zheng Proofreader: Yang Hefang