Spirit Whispers

In this episode of the Infinitely Precious Podcast, James reflects on the quiet, transformative power of “spirit whispers”—those subtle moments of awe and wonder that open us to connection with the Divine and the world around us. Through a morning encounter with two hawks outside his window, James explores how nature offers reminders of belonging, presence, and the sacred gift of life. Listeners are invited to stay awake to these whispers of Spirit, to notice the beauty woven into ordinary moments, and to receive them as reminders of how deeply we are connected and loved.

Episode Transcript

Intro (00:00):
Welcome to the infinitely precious podcast produced by

(00:03):
infinitely precious LLC. Yourhost is James Henry. Remember,
you are infinitely precious andunconditionally loved for the
gift you already are.

James (00:12):
Hello, beloved. It's me, James, and it's good to be with
you this week. I'm so happy thatyou joined me on the podcast, on
this weekly podcast fromInfinitely Precious. And I
encourage you, if you find thisbrief podcast that I do on a
weekly basis helpful, that youshare it with others, encourage
others to listen to it too. Wetry to do our best to make this

(00:37):
an uplifting and encouragingtime of sharing, time to share
some thoughts about the world,about spiritual perspectives.
And so I just invite you toshare it if it s meaningful to
you. It is good to have you withme. I am thankful for those of
you who do listen. Try my bestto be thankful for everyone, but

(01:00):
I'm certainly thankful thatyou're one of my listeners. So
thanks for listening.
Today I wanted to take anopportunity to talk about what I
call spirit whispers. It's a youcan call it lots of different
things, but there are momentswhen I find myself especially in
tune in that moment to whateveris going on around me. You might

(01:24):
call me truly awake in thatmoment, or perhaps I'm grounded,
centered in that moment, andsomething speaks to me. Often
it's in nature, but it could bejust a phrase or a word in a
song I'm listening to on theradio. It could invite deeper
reflection about what's going onin the world, who I am as a

(01:48):
person or otherwise.
Those could all be seen asspirit whispers. You may want to
call it your own thing, whateverit is, but for me it s called
spirit whispers. At least Icoined that phrase for myself.
So the other day I was sittinglooking out my front window.

(02:10):
Sometimes in the morning, when Iget my second cup of coffee
while Linda and Josh may haveleft the house and be headed to
work, or I might be drinking mysecond cup of coffee while I m
waiting for them to say goodbyeto me or whatever, I look out
the front window while I'mdrinking that coffee and I just
try to gaze without any judgmentabout what's going on in the

(02:33):
world.
And just across the street fromwhere I live now, there is this
tall tree. It's got a couple ofdead limbs on it. And as I was
looking at one of the deadlimbs, it had no leaves on it
obviously, and I was like, Icouldn't tell, but something was

(02:54):
just a little bit off about it.I could tell something was maybe
moving, but I couldn't tell whatit was, until there were two,
until in a moment while I waswatching and taking a sip of
coffee, two beautiful hawks. Oneswooped down and went off

(03:16):
towards the left of my viewingarea, which is toward the east,
and one came directly towardsour front window, we have a big
picture window in the front ofthe house in the Parsonage where
we live, and it swooped down andthen came up right above the

(03:41):
roof of the house and flew away.
And I was just in awe as I satthere. There was no particular
feeling about it in the sensethat I wanted to place any
judgment on it. It was justbeautiful to be present and see

(04:02):
not just one, but two hawkstogether, and I had not seen two
hawks together before in theneighborhood. You know, maybe on
the nature channel or some videoI was watching, or when I was
out and about, but here it was afirst. And as I just sat odd for

(04:26):
a moment, I just was deeplythankful, first of all, to catch
a glimpse of nature here in themidst of a fairly urban setting
that I live in, that naturemakes a way.
Wherever it is, life makes a wayto be alive. And as I saw, I had
seen those two hawks swoop offin different directions, it sort

(04:49):
of set me thinking about whatthey might have been doing. My
imagination came into being. AndI was thinking about how they
sort of developed perhaps m nota hawk, I don know about their
higher order thinking. I knowthat they re conscious beings.
I don know what level ofconsciousness perhaps they have.

(05:13):
But I thought to myself how theymight have been dividing up the
tasks that needed to be done.Perhaps it's not the time of
year when they would be feedingyoung, I don't think, but
perhaps they were headed indifferent directions to gather
food or to search for prey indifferent places. Perhaps when

(05:34):
they travel together, it'sharder to find enough food for
both of them. So they head indifferent directions.
And I thought how working inteams makes a difference in our
world. We tend to see ourselvesas individuals apart from

(05:56):
everything else, and yet eachone of us is fully a part of all
that is going on around us, allthat is happening in the
universe in this moment. We area part of that. We are a piece
of that. We are a part of thecontinuity, the singularity of
all that is.
We are individuals within thatsingularity, but nonetheless

(06:22):
part of that larger piece. Andso I thought about participating
in it potentially in the waythese two hawks behaved and went
in different directions. Perhapsthey just like different
directions. Perhaps they wereold friends, not a couple, and

(06:42):
they were just hanging outbefore they both went back to
their separate nests. These arequestions I don't know the
answer to.
But in my imagination, Iconnected them, I saw them as a
pair, and I saw it as atremendous gift that here in
this setting, here were twohawks in the neighborhood

(07:06):
together and how well theycamouflaged, blended in, until
they didn't anymore when theytook off and took flight. Being
it began to make me feel like apart of the nature in which I
live. This place that I findmyself in this moment, in this

(07:31):
time. I mean, whispers all sortsof subtle messages of belonging
and love and hope to me inmoments when I need it most. And
as I recollect about thatparticular morning, I didn't
have any particular feelingabout the morning as it begins.

(07:55):
Just on my second cup of coffee.Perhaps I didn t have enough of
the caffeine stimulant in mybody or not. I can t speak to
that. But there was just a giftthat actually I carried through
the rest of the day, and it drewme into a kind of wonder and

(08:15):
awe. And when we have spiritwhispers happen in our lives and
we get caught in moments ofwonder and awe, it seems to me
that those moments kind of openus up.
Imagine that we're re kind of inour moments when we re just

(08:38):
completely self focused, that were sort of closed off in some
ways to connecting. And inmoments of awe and wonder, I
felt sort of an opening toreceive the wonder of the
universe, the subtle messagesthat the divine may speak into
me. And suddenly I found myselfaware throughout the rest of the

(09:02):
day of the beauty of the eartharound me. I went into my office
that morning, I opened thewindow. It was a nice enough day
that I opened the window at myoffice, you know, just away from
here.
I felt the breeze, I listened tothe bird, I felt more connected

(09:25):
to all that is. I remembered I ma part of nature as much as any
creature I see out my window,and s a gift to be a part of it
all, what a gift it is to bealive. All of this was born to
me as a gift from looking out myfront window and catching the

(09:49):
glimpse of two hawks as oneswooped over me and flew away
above the house and one swoopedoff to the east from the same
perch, surprising me in themoment. And I think oftentimes
that s how spirit whispers work.One moment we just are awake

(10:10):
enough or we're present enough,we're there enough that it
speaks to us.
Spirit can surprise us. It takessurprise because I think we re
pretty insulated. We look forall these rational things and
measurable realities. Re veryempirical in our approach to

(10:34):
life sometimes. Doesn't leave alot of room for on wonder about
the miracle we are, about allthe atoms and molecules and
tinier particles we don't evenhave names for perhaps yet, that
make up our bodies.
How every moment is a newarising. How every breath is a

(10:55):
gift. How every heartbeat is agift. How even having these
thoughts for me is to me a gift.And perhaps to you, it's the
same.
Hearing these words might inviteyou to simply be present in the
moments you can. Really bepresent in the moment. Be awake

(11:18):
to the world around us. I thinkthat's what Jesus meant when he
kept telling his asking hisdisciples to stay awake, to keep
awake, to be ready, because wedon't know when we might be
surprised. If we re sleepingthrough it, and many of us
sleepwalk through life, we resleeping through it, we miss it.

(11:40):
I think God, the divine spiritwants to speak into our lives
all the time if we but listen.Well, that was my thought for
this week. Thanks again forjoining me. So delighted to have
you with me. Until the nexttime, I wish you all the best
and remind you, you areinfinitely precious and

(12:02):
unconditionally loved for thegift you already are.
Until the next time.