Lessons from the Animal Kingdom: Bird Watching
Welcome to the promise of Monday and our next in our series of My Life is Just Speech Material…And, So is Yours. ?
Today, we’ll continue our discussion regarding using nature and the animal kingdom as a source of inspiration for speech material by considering bird watching.
I certainly do not consider myself a bird watcher, knowing the species, habitats, or migration paths of birds, although this would make a great presentation. I do, however, love to just watch them and have been inspired by the graceful soaring eagles overhead, the watchful eyes of the hawk, and the playfulness of a little yellow finch. Hmm, there are three points that would make a great speech.
One very windy day I was watching a few birds as they were flying through the bright sky. What caught my attention was the way they seemed to literally be playing in the wind. As I watched, they soared high then low and back up again. It truly looked as though they were just playing in the wind and with each other. When was the last time you just took a break and played? Oops, I better stop here before I get into another speech, but you get the idea.
Once, I spoke at a conference at a beautiful resort in West Virginia. It was nestled in the mountains and had a picturesque view out of the window of the lake and surrounding area. Since it was elevated, and the large picture windows were perched high above the lake, it looked like you were sitting in the clouds. I hadn’t realized just how high we were until I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. It took me a few seconds to realize that there were several birds flying through the sky at eye level. The thought was instantly funny, but quickly leaped to “What type of speech could I do with this?” (Are you surprised?) Thinking in threes, as we are being taught to do in this series, I thought …
The animal kingdom has so much material to offer speakers about life lessons. Take a moment and just watch the world around you and be inspired, then go out and inspire others.
Photo by Larz Kuczynsky @codefriend_de