Soothing Your Senses with Nature’s Symphony

BY SUSAN B B SCHABACKER

With God and Mother Nature as masterful Creators and Conductors of nature’s symphony, some of the best music around exists in nature.

From the cicadas, frogs, and crickets of summer to birds’ songs, each of these creatures adds to nature’s symphonic soundscapes.

And the moving water of ocean waves, rivers, streams, and waterfalls can also be soothingly therapeutic. A rich mixture of nature’s sounds might include the following:

• Rain in an exotic lush rainforest/jungle; • A thunderstorm with pelting rain; • A Zen water fountain, gently bubbling forth; • A country meadow with birdsongs, cicadas, and crickets; • A lake or pond with crickets chirping, loons calling, and frogs croaking; • The wind whistling through melodic wind chimes and the canopies of trees; • A rolling river or flowing stream with birds singing; • A crackling bonfire at the beach; • An African pridelands safari with safari animals and buzzing insects.

Research is documenting the healing benefits of sounds from nature that are supportive and beneficial to health and well-being. Listening to nature sounds is not just relaxing, but can also legitimately contribute to relieving stress and anxiety, as well as help improve chronic pain. It has been found that water-related sounds, like a babbling brook, the gentle lull of ocean waves, or a soothing fountain, are linked with the most positive effects of joy and passion, and research has also noted that melodic bird songs are able to lower stress. Increasingly, researchers, music therapists, and psychologists think of music as a kind of medicine that can improve patient health.

Whatever the season, whether indoors or out, we can embrace our ears and soothe our senses and souls with the sounds of nature’s symphony. This fall is an ideal time to head out on a nature walk, hike or bike, and camp out in the mountains or at the beach.

In addition to expanded audio awareness, engage your other senses as you view the splendid visual scenery of the colorful fall leaves; breathe in deeply fresh air and the scent of fir, pine, and evergreen trees, or salty sea air; soak up the sun and synthesize vitamin D3; and feel the rush of cool water around your feet in a forest stream, lake, river, or in ocean waves.

Our ancestors in ancient times may have been stressed from being in survival mode with fight-or-flight responses intact while braving the elements and fending off bears, but at least they could benefit from nature sounds with a calming effect!

The next time you encounter writer’s block, try increasing your concentration and focus by opening your ears to soothing songs containing the natural elements of nature. Nature sounds might assist in the flow and let the words come forth by themselves!

The ever-evolving emergence and musical merging of the broad genre of New Age music, ambient soundscapes, and nature sounds offer an eclectic fusion of soothing sounds, ranging from binaural beats with their finely tuned frequencies to a combination of more traditional, culturallyrich, and folk-inspired songs from around the world, to modern soundscapes utilizing synth and other electronic elements.

Some suggestions for enjoying and benefitting from healing nature sounds, whether indoors or out—so you can relax and restore your mind, body, and spirit after a long day, during your break from work and as you drift off into sweet slumber—might include trying free phone apps with soothing sounds, like Noisli and Slumber.

Or you can organically capture your own nature sounds, recorded with a field recorder or app on your portable device. Then, play, produce, and mix nature’s sounds with your own creative EP or album. You can also add in melodic, ambient, rhythmic elements, pairing your instrument(s) with other elements, or just employ nature sounds.

You set the standard and decide the direction. No hard and fast rules. No limitations to hold you back. No boundaries to make you feel confined. Instead, open yourself and your imagination to be free-spirited. Explore and experiment, using your senses and letting them guide you to creatively crafting the sounds that feel right.

Research shows that highquality, early learning through Pre-K better prepares children for kindergarten, increases test scores, and results in higher graduation rates and college attendance. So, why is access to affordable, quality Pre-K not a priority in Forsyth County? Well, now IT IS, thanks to the efforts of The Pre-K Priority, a collaborative of over 80 local early childhood education leaders and advocates.

In 2020, The Pre-K Priority launched a community awareness and education effort funded by the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust to better inform families and the community about the importance of Pre-K for every four-year-old. The Trust also commissioned a Pre-K feasibility study by Forsyth Futures, which underscored key community concerns including affordability and access. As part of the survey, nearly two out of every three families responded that there were not enough available high-quality Pre-K slots. Rising costs were another issue.

Thanks to the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, The Pre-K Priority will receive its first public funds in support of local Pre-K classrooms and educators. At their September 22nd meeting, the Commissioners approved a $3.7 million ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) grant request to Smart Start of Forsyth County on behalf of The Pre-K Priority for a two-year project supporting 30 Pre-K classrooms and educators with specific high-quality resources and supports that are currently limited or nonexistent. The project will impact 540 Pre-K students and their families in addition to 60 Pre-K educators.

“Smart Start of Forsyth County is proud to administer the approved grant funding on behalf of The Pre-K Priority initiative and the multiple local partners involved. We thank the Board of Commissioners for its investment in the children of Forsyth County,” said Dr. Louis Finney, President & CEO of Smart Start of Forsyth County. The two-year project will involve several organizations in Forsyth County that are part of The Pre-K Priority, including Smart Start of Forsyth County, Family Services of Forsyth County, WinstonSalem/Forsyth County Schools (WS/ FCS), Child Care Resource Center, Latino Community Services and Forsyth Futures.

“It’s vital that every four-year-old in our county have access to high-quality, affordable Pre-K if we want to realize the educational and economic goals we’ve set for our community. These children are the future of our community, and we need to give them the best start in life possible,” said Traci Ross, CEO of Family Services of Forsyth County. Family Services has convened The Pre-K Priority since the collaborative was established in 2015 and runs the local Head Start program. Head Start has open enrollment for Pre-K (and other programs) year-round for qualifying families.

The Pre-K Priority outlined six primary outcomes to improve Forsyth County’s Pre-K system that the collaborative expects to achieve with the ARPA funding: - Establish a high-quality Pre-K foundation using the project’s model cohort of 30

Pre-K classrooms and educators; - Address barriers within the Pre-K landscape and set standards for future expansion; - Maximize the unique strengths and collaborative effectiveness of

Forsyth County’s early childhood education partners; - Invest in the development and retention of Pre-K educators through coaching, technical assistance and salary parity within the project’s 30-classroom cohort to help inform scaling those aspects across the full Pre-K landscape; - Support parents and families of the cohort using evidence-based programs and engaging Family Advocates/

Specialists; and - Track outcomes, monitor fidelity of implementation and develop an integrated data system to connect early childhood education networks in the community.

More than 2,700 children attend Pre-K in Forsyth County, including those who participate in the NC Pre-K Program, in the Family Services Head Start program, in WS/FCS classrooms and in private community child care centers. The project’s model cohort will represent this varied landscape with classrooms located in licensed, private/independent child care businesses, Head Start, WS/FCS and community child care centers who participate in the NC Pre-K Program.

Over the last year, the Forsyth County Early Childhood Education Task Force partnered with The Pre-K Priority to develop and adopt 19 recommendations to serve as a roadmap for structuring an accessible, equitable, high-quality Pre-K system. This fall, the Task Force will issue a final report outlining the series of recommendations for expanding high-quality Pre-K in Forsyth County, reflecting much of what will be piloted in the two-year program funded by the ARPA grant.

“Pre-K can be a community game changer, especially as we strive to achieve educational equity, but it will take a significant investment of local dollars to make this a reality. Receiving this grant is a major step and we look forward to demonstrating the value of high-quality Pre-K with this two-year project,” said Dr. Finney.

Forsyth County will now join a growing list of counties across North Carolina who invest local dollars in expanding access to high-quality Pre-K, including Mecklenburg, Buncombe, Durham, and Wake.

For more information on the work of The Pre-K Priority as well as Pre-K options in our community, please visit www.PreKPriority.org or on Facebook at @PreKPriority.

Forgetful Israelites

BY ANGELIA CORNATZER

“The Exodus,” translated as “the way out,” is when the people of Israel had a way out of Israel after the plagues. According to Exodus 12:37, there were about 600,000 men counted, and on top of that there were also women, children, and livestock. Exodus 12:50 says, “All of the people of Israel did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. And on that very day the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.” Their journey had begun.

In Exodus 13:21, we see, “The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.” What a miracle that God created this specific and special way to lead this group of people! In chapter 14, we see that the Lord “drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land.” Can you imagine the sight of this? The Israelites saw the Lord open up the sea to become a path for them. What a miracle!

In the following chapter, we see that they were traveling in the wilderness and did not find water to drink. Moses cried to the Lord, and the Lord made a way to turn the water source sweet and drinkable. Continuing into chapter 16, God once again performed a huge miracle as He brought food from Heaven to sustain them. In chapter 17, we see how the Lord brings water from the rock for them to drink. When we take time to think about all the blessings from the Lord to the Israelites in this time, we see that the Lord did so much for these people in so many miraculous ways. Can you imagine seeing God split the Red Sea so you can pass through or eating the bread that the Lord brought you from Heaven when you were hungry? They really saw the Lord’s faithfulness, time and time again.

Now we fast-forward to Exodus 32, verses 1-7. Here we see a tragic shift in the hearts of the people. Moses was on the mountain, so the people got impatient and asked Aaron to make them a god. Aaron gathered people’s earrings and molded them into a golden calf to worship. When this golden calf was set up, according to Exodus 32:4, they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” They decided in a moment of impatience to attribute the miracles and the faithfulness of God to a golden cow statue made out of their earrings. How unbelievable is that?

But how often do we do the same thing? Maybe you have seen the faithfulness of the Lord time and time again, but find yourself giving something else all the credit. Maybe you have relied on the Lord to get you through a hard time, and then ended up forgetting about how faithful He was to you. From the series of events here, I want us to see that even when God parted the Red Sea for them, gave them water in the wilderness, and so many other miracles…they forgot, and they gave credit to something else that was so much less than the Lord. I pray that through this we realize, just as the Israelites here, that we can quickly forget the faithfulness of the Lord. This week, choose to thank the Lord for what He has done. Choose to give Him credit and don’t forget His abundant faithfulness. The same God that led them through the wilderness by cloud and fire, gave them manna to eat and created a water source for them to drink, is the same God that we have the opportunity to have a relationship with now. He is good. He is powerful. He is faithful. Don’t forget!