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Writer's pictureMelinda Nakagawa

Mockingbird message 🎶

Updated: Jul 27

I'd like to share how I tuned into Nature's call, and how it informed my actions and perspective and offered a way to focus my energy.


This morning as I sat out on my front porch and started writing in my journal (I call this flow journaling, more in another post), I noticed feeling the cool air in the shade and seeing the warm morning sunshine in the garden ahead of me. ☀️




I love the smell of the air. And seeing the blue sky with wispy fog in the far distance. The songs of birds were loud today, and it caught my attention.


I thought of Bob Marley's song, Three Little Birds, where little birds sat by his doorstep and sang a message to him. I wondered what message will be here for me today?


I went back to writing, allowing the words to flow without analyzing, letting them spill out onto to page without friction to clear my mind clutter and allow a cleaner connection to nature.


A baby mockingbird chirps, "jeeep...jeeep...jeeep" a begging call for food. Hmm, I wonder where the nest is?


Then, I hear an acorn woodpecker's "RACK-up, RACK-up"



A male northern mockingbird sings loudly and glides by and up to the top of a fir tree that I can see in my next door neighbors yard about 50 feet away. It was perched on a side branch near the top of the tree.


While continuously singing, he did a maneuver of jumping up, flapping wings, then swooping back to the starting point, repeatedly.


How fun! interesting, I wonder who else is watching him?


I heard a siren "weee-ooo, wee-ooo, wee-ooo, wee-ooo" then Chirp..chirp, jay,...jay,...jay...


PEE-a-wheep, PEE-a-wheep, PEE-a-wheep,


Oh, its a pacific-slope flycatcher...


but Wait, he sang it too many repeats, and so much louder that normal...Aha!- its the mockingbird! He fooled me! 😂

The singer continued on without missing a beat.

"ribBIT-ribBIT, ribBIT-ribBIT....Tseep-CHUCK, Tseep-CHUCK, Tseep-CHUCK, grawck, grawck, ,chuk chuk,chuk chuk......wee-oo, wee--oo, PEter, PEter, PEter........"





The mockingbird continued with his musical arrangement of the local voices he's encountered and selected these to include in his aria today.


How fun! He's playfully stringing together the songs of others (including a car alarm!) in his territory.


He's experimenting with the arrangement with such carefree-ness.


Yes! I understand.


Mockingbird says:


Be playful

Sing your unique song

And do it with gusto and confidence

Experiment, try out new sounds, (how else will you know if you like it?)

Don't be afraid to test it out.

Revisit and revise your song, sing again, rise and repeat

Be uniquely you.

Share your joy, spread the joy/voices into the air


This is how I tune into nature and hear the wisdom that's broadcast day and night for all of us.


Bringing this into my daily life:


  • How can I bring more playfulness to my life right now?

  • Am I being afraid to show my true self, share my unique way of being somewhere

  • Is there somewhere in my life (personal, family, work, relationships, etc) that can use some color, play, or lightness?

  • Can I share my voice or perspective or my joy with the world- either with one person or many people?






My actions for today based on Mockingbird's message:


  • I am definitely adding play today-- Creative play date with my friend this evening.

  • And I'm sharing my unique, true self with you now. I've sat down to write this article to you-- about how I tune into nature's wisdom. It can feel a bit vulnerable because our modern world is not used to talking about these things that used to be common language in older times. Our conditioning might label this as weird or not scientific. I know part of my work is to make the language of nature more commonplace. We need it for our well-being.

  • I LOVE color- so I think I will play with watercolor for fun at my creative playtime.



You might interpret this differently than I did- and that's okay. There is a unique message for each of us!


I'd love to hear from YOU.


How do you interpret Mockingbird's message in your life today?

How are you using it today?


When we tune into nature with an open-hearted, non-judging way, we might be surprised!




Want to learn how to draw bird songs into your journal? Check out my Drawing Bird Song self-paced course.



Want to be in a co-journaling online space with me and other nature and creativity lovers?

Join the Spark Collective: a collaborative of people wanting to nurture and sustain a deeper connection to nature and their inner nature through creative practice of nature journaling. Members enjoy 2-3 workshops a month, 2 co-journaling sessions, time with Melinda, plus more.


More info and your free trial here.

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