A LIFE IN SOUND
This series aims to take listeners on an epic and intimate journey through the natural world, all through the medium of sound and at the same time we want to enable a rare glimpse into the life of a man who recorded everything you’re about to hear, one sound at a time.
Martyn Stewart has spent his lifetime on a mission: to record the natural sounds of our planet. It’s a story that will take us from a council estate in Birmingham England and ultimately take him to every corner of the planet. From Belize to the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, from Denali to the Galapagos, to some of the most inhospitable locations geographically and politically. He will be attacked by lions and crocodiles, arrested in Japan for filming the annual dolphin slaughter and then find himself in long periods of isolation, in remote corners of the world waiting for 30 seconds of a that perfect sound. This is ultimately a love story – dedicated to our natural world and to the people who spend their lives aiming to give it a voice.
A LIFE IN SOUND
Embracing the Symphony of Life: A Journey Through Terminal Illness
When Martyn Stewart first heard the word "cancer" in relation to his own health, his world was upended. Yet, as he reveals in our latest episode, it was the start of a journey that transformed his understanding of life, death, and the power of human resilience. We share a compelling and intimate conversation that transcends the typical narrative of struggle, focusing instead on Martyn's evolution through his battles with prostate cancer, his confrontation with mortality, his unwavering determination to live each moment to its fullest despite the odds and the role that nature has provided throughout.
The notion of mortality often casts a long shadow, but Martyn tries to keep us focussed on finding the light in the present. His story is an ode to the sublime beauty found in life's simplicity. Listeners will be moved by his reflections on the environment, his drive to give back to the planet, and how even in the face of terminal illness, one can leave an indelible positive mark.
As the episode unfolds, we traverse the diverse landscapes of despair and hope, pain and joy, and ultimately, acceptance. Martyn's yearning to capture nature's symphony is a testament to his passion for life, and his insights serve as a gentle reminder to appreciate the now, embracing the small wonders that each day brings. Join us for a conversation that's not only about facing the end but about the art of living meaningfully in the time that we have.
www.thelisteningplanet.com
This is Martin Stewart, with a life in sound from the Listening Planet.
Amanda Hill:I want to talk about illness.
Amanda Hill:I want to talk about what it means to face death, and go with me on this for a minute in terms of I was thinking about it in the car this morning after I dropped off Aldous and all of us eventually are going to face death, but there's something about being given a terminal diagnosis that makes you live differently.
Amanda Hill:I think, and a couple of my friends their fathers have passed away and the three of us were talking one day about the fact that we'd never had a conversation with our family, with our parents, with our friends, about what it means to confront death and what that means for living. And you're somebody, Martyn, for me, who lives and you live so vibrantly for me who lives and you live so vibrantly. And even since the diagnosis, there's not a single day you're still not picking yourself up and getting on these Zoom calls and doing all the stuff that we're trying to do, and so I'd really like you, to start with, I want us to be really candid. I want us to have a conversation that people won't have about illness, because I think it matters to so many people who are afraid to talk about it. So maybe we could start with the first time the dreaded cancer kind of entered your life. It was a long time ago, right?
Martyn Stewart:It started in 1994 in Scotland when I was having problems in the old urinary box area and then I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. So the easiest thing is to fall down this cliff and start having a pity party and feeling sorry for yourself. Down this cliff and start having a pity party and feeling sorry for yourself, and it's. It's that kind of thing where you know why me. And then when, once you get past that and you say well, why not me? You know why someone else show the fight and spirit inside you and and defeat anything you can. My mum used to say she never used to say many inspiring things in my life, but she used to say that, um, there's no such thing as can't and I.
Martyn Stewart:I used to think well, it's in the dictionary and I've heard people say it in school, so it is a word, and then you start to understand it's a cop-out. You know I can't do that or I can't do this, I'll put it off and I'll do this, that and the other Things like that becomes. When I defeated that in Scotland, it took a couple of years to be clean. When I approached it again, I knew something was going on.
Amanda Hill:So tell me, how old were you the first time that you were diagnosed with cancer?
Martyn Stewart:First, time was 1994, so do the math I'm 68 now. I was 40.
Amanda Hill:Yeah.
Martyn Stewart:I was about 40. Yeah, it's about 40. So 40 years of age and then being told by a doctor that you know it's not an old man's disease, because I used to think prostate, you get to 70 and you bollocks are dropping off. You know, you think you smell of piss and you get all those imagery. You know, I'm not part of that department.
Amanda Hill:I'm afraid.
Martyn Stewart:I can't have that. But I understood it and I thought well, I've got a young girl, she she was 12 at the time. I thought I want to see her grow up and I want to enjoy my life. And there's nothing really written in front of me that says that's going to prevent me from doing it, unless I get slammed over by a boss or a truck. Yeah, I knew what how to navigate it.
Martyn Stewart:I thought, because of my upbringing, I thought you just got to get on with it you're living in a council estate and you have to confront all kinds of things that just come at you and it well, okay, this is another way of navigating through life, but I did have the pity parties as well. I think you need to have those. You need to get that sorriness away from you. There was a time when I was driving down the a9 and I saw a car approaching and I was saying what if I just turn the wheel in front of this car and then a little voice on my shoulders going you pathetic piece of shit, you know what a coward way out and you're going to take away someone's family? So it was confronting all these demons.
Martyn Stewart:So when I had it in 2019, I knew something was happening. And then they diagnosed me and I thought, well, all right, I've had it before, I know how to get through it, I'll just do it. No, you know, and I did it. I beat it, you know. I got to the December and I knocked the numbers down, but then whoever it is that created this crap decided he was going to throw a curveball and say well, you know, you've done that, here's your next test. Test you've got bone cancer and this is terminally ill. Um, and I? I had some major problems because, as you say, when someone tells you terminally ill that there's a, a clock starts ticking.
Amanda Hill:The clock doesn't tick the other way so when you got cancer the second time, that was prostate prostate prostate, yeah, prostate cancer and that was not the terminal diagnosis. It was the bone.
Martyn Stewart:No, no metastasized into my bones okay and it.
Martyn Stewart:It's one of those things where it's the look of the draw. It just happens. I didn't know what it meant. I had no idea. When some doctor's telling you the prognosis about stuff and you think, well, okay, you're in a white coat, you're telling me a bunch of shite, what are you going to do for me? And then you quickly realize what terminal cancer means. Then you've got two battles. You have two fronts really. You're trying to beat One. Are you going to accept it? Two, how do you become positive? Through this? Again You've been positive through something. The word cancer is horrible and you find that when you have cancer, people don't know how to say the word.
Amanda Hill:Yeah.
Martyn Stewart:And they stay off it and I introduce the word to people and say, you know, make fun about it. When we steppeddad had it, I used to make jokes at him and the family would stand around the hospital bed going, oh my God, you know you can't keep saying that. I remember it was his birthday and I bought him something. I said I didn't bother spending the extra money on the guarantee, you know. But he laughed about it and I thought, well, he's seen something funny from there, instead of everybody being morbid and you know, taboo, you can't say these things and I always just change the rules. I think, fuck it, but I do that to myself.
Amanda Hill:But tell me, how did you feel? So when you found out so that was 2020, when you found out so that was 2020 when you found out that you had bone cancer, is that?
Martyn Stewart:right 2020.
Amanda Hill:Yeah, 2020, december, the 30th 2020, some of the 30th 2020 and god, I've got so many questions for you, but first question is um how, when you're told something, how long do they tell you? What does terminal mean in that instance?
Martyn Stewart:yeah, what does terminal? When does the boss come? When does it pick you up? Well, they said, based on statistics and other people's prognosis, you've got three to five years to live. And then all kinds of things go through your head. What are you going to do in three years? What if it's five years? What if they're wrong? What if they do seven years? And the first thing you do is you do research on it and try to understand what you have. And once you understand, then you know what armory to take into battle to fight it yeah but where I say you have to go through that pity party.
Martyn Stewart:I I've said this before. I was laying in bed one o'clock in the morning feeling really sorry for myself, and I came downstairs and I grabbed my phone and I called the suicide line. I was really on that edge, you know the precipice of whatever was there to greet me. And I remember talking to this really lovely lady and I said I'm sorry to disturb you. She's saying no, it's okay, you, you're not disturbed, that's what we're here for. And I was worried about there's a thing called a baker act here, that if people think you're on the edge of taking your life, they come and arrest you and lock you up and put you in a straight jacket. So my, my concern was getting arrested and locked up. At 2 o'clock in the morning, police turning up at your door with a white jacket, and she said no, it's completely confidential. I said, well, the fact that I've called you, dialed you and spoken to you and opened my mind up is enough. That's enough for me. I've just realized what I've done and I realize I'm going against all my principles and I said really, I'm okay, you know I'm fine. And I hung up and she called back and she said we don't normally do this because it's invading your privacy, but I need to know you're okay and I said I'm absolutely fine. I just needed to do that and I reconnected with natural sounds.
Martyn Stewart:I went over to the beach three o'clock in the morning, sat on the sand and cried my eyes out and listened to the ocean in the morning, sat on the sand and cried my eyes out and listened to the ocean and I thought why did you need to do that? You know the answer with things like this if a tree becomes ill, it attracts a disease or it attracts an infestation of insects, but it wards it off, it fights it off, and I thought I've got to find my way of trying to fight that off. You know, omit my own pesticide or herbicide that needs to be done. So that clock is the worst thing you can confront, that ticking clock, because six months becomes nine months and then a year goes by and you think well, I started taking pictures of myself and I started doing little videos so that when you do go, you've left something for people to listen to.
Martyn Stewart:And I wrote a lot of notes and I have a journal which is too long and dealing with people looking at you and showing the surprise in their face is it's kind of hard, because when you haven't seen someone for a long time, you think what they're gonna, how they're gonna react to, to how they perceive you. You know, and up to now it's been okay unless there's been a lot of lying bastards around I've been okay with it. But you know, you deteriorate. You know, like three years ago I can't do what I did. I used to love riding my bike up and down, keeping a fitness. I used to walk five miles a day where now I do two and a half miles a day. I haven't walked a beach for probably three, four months because I can't navigate the sand. It's just too much for me. So the ticking clock is something where you know when I talk to you and you say you're approaching 50, I think fuck off.
Amanda Hill:How's that?
Martyn Stewart:possible Yet 20 years ago to think you were going to be 30 years older than that? It's hard to comprehend. I can look back now at three years and go. Three years that means three or five years. So now I'm standing in the queue waiting to get through the door to see what's going to happen to me. It's weird.
Amanda Hill:Tell me what's the. Give me some of the like. The hard part in terms of it went from prostate to bone. Tell me where you are on your cancer journey. Just the fundamental part of it.
Martyn Stewart:It went to my bones. It went to my left hip. There was a tumour that appeared there and then the fragmentation of the bone. My bones were getting weak, the lack of energy, the fragility of your skeleton, basically, and having to deal with various chemicals in your body and trying to deal with the pain. I've always had a high pain threshold. I've always been able to suffer pain a lot more than a lot of other people. I don't know what that is, I just think we just get on with it. And I think I've seen I had.
Martyn Stewart:My daughter went through opiate addiction, so I was very conscious about popping pills, so I didn't want that experience. I hate not being able to think straight. I can't stand anything that impairs my way of thinking. But chemicals do that and I understand that every time you have chemo it's like some alien just invading your body and just trying to control you. It's, um, those are difficult to navigate. That's. That's pretty hard.
Martyn Stewart:But I said the other day to, or the other month to the one of the doctors I said I'm standing in three years, um, where do you think I am? And he said well, once it starts going into your organs, that's normally when things start to deteriorate. So I had it in my liver, which I just got the all clear for, got it in my lung. I had it in my in my head. Um, I have another one now at the front. Yeah, I had it in my right knee. I had a hairline cracker along the back of my hip. Just happens, you know, and you you're having calcifiers, you're keeping all types of things to keep. The medical world is amazing, but I think the power of mind is greater. I am today is because I allow certain endorphins and dopamine and stuff to take over my body in positive ways than I do with some injection.
Amanda Hill:Yeah.
Martyn Stewart:And I think that's important and the work I do is a stimulant. It's no end of joy to be able to sit cramped in a chair hurting your fucking back listening to shit you've done, you know recording but it but it. It's pleasing. I mean stuff like today talking to shireen. It has a, has a positive effect on me.
Martyn Stewart:There's, it's, it's that hope drug, you know I've got something when we went to, when we went to abbey road. The boost from that and seeing what we've achieved in such a short time I I know, I know sometimes it feels like eternal, but what we've achieved and when you stand back and you you suck all that in, that's like having a shot of philip.
Amanda Hill:You know, it's just how do you think, how do you feel it's changed your approach to, to living? Because you've always. The thing that's so interesting with you is is that you've always been somebody who has led such an incredibly rich and adventured and you know outdoor life, and so many people, when they find out that there's they have some sickness, suddenly lament all the things they haven't done and all the things they'd like to do. But you've always done these things. You've always been out in the wild, exploring, living, just living. How was, how was the term, the diagnosis of change, your approach to how you are leading, how you're living in the present?
Martyn Stewart:I think I've always appreciated things, just just the smallest things. I've always appreciated it whether someone makes you a cup of tea, you're taking your time to do something like that and waking up in the morning. I love waking up in the morning. I love the differences that the day brings and the, the delivery of things which a lot of people just take for granted and we charge ourselves every day to go and achieve something. And yet when you stand back and the saying smell the roses. If people did that more often and valued what they already have and what is there which is free. You don't have to have this racing mentality and I think being able to experience the daylight and the night is something that's worth striving for. I love life. That question that Archie said at Abbey Road what will you miss the most? That's the craziest thing. I miss everything. I never take anything for granted, nothing.
Martyn Stewart:If my pen works, you know if it runs out of ink I don't scream and throw it across the room and say what, what the fuck is life doing to me? I think the the ability to be able to see things and and others, and love and have peace is. I've learned that. Over my lifetime, though, I've got such a negative family that I think why don't you just unleash the shackles? Why don't you let them go? You know, just walk, go and do something, enjoy it. Stop living back in the past. If you want to go back in the past, look at the joyful memories. Look at the wonderful things that you've been able to do that many other people haven't been able to do. Look at the news, for christ's sake. Look at people suffering across the world and tell me that your situation is worse than them. Look in the mirror every night and say thank you so much for giving me today. I love that, I love that and that lesson's free. You haven't got to go and withdraw money in a bank account to go and get that.
Amanda Hill:It's just there. Do you think about death?
Martyn Stewart:In a horrible way. I do Because I don't believe in God, I don't believe that there's another world afterwards. I don't believe that there's something there after me. So death is the end. I think you live on through other people. You know the memories that you can have a conversation about. You know old Jack down the road. You know he was 96. You know he used to fight in the war and he did that and the other and his wife and him were together for 40-odd years. All that's gone, you know, just ends. So I cling on to the life of every day. So I have these dreams now and again that there's these white faces in masks that are pulling me into a hole. And those dreams come, probably once a month or something. Sometimes they were coming three times a week. So I am petrified of dying. I don't want to die. You've been invited to this amazing party. You get out of your nappies. You stop shitting through every orifice in your body.
Martyn Stewart:You get to a point where you can walk yourself and you don't have to depend on other people. You become self-sufficient and life becomes beautiful. I've not got one bad memory that floods me and makes me think I don't want to talk about that. I'll talk about everything and make a joke about it, and I think that's how life should be. My brother, alan, was as negative as they come and he was encapsulated in negativity. He just couldn't see. He would see the beauty, but he would try to find something negative about it.
Martyn Stewart:I think how can you live like that? There's so much talent in your brain, in your body, in your bones, so much to live for. You've got to bring this shit baggage from your past into your present and then upset the rhythm of your life. And once you're gone, you're gone Until someone tells me something different. There's this bonus at the end of life I'm frightened of dying. I don't want to die. I don't think I'm frightened of dying. Now, let me put that right. I think I've got used to die. I don't think I'm frightened of dying. No, let me put that right. I think I've got used to the idea of dying. I don't want to die. That's it. I don't want to like. I don't want to go to a party with some person who's going to bore the shit out of you. You're stuck in the kitchen, you don't want to do that and I look at death that way because I think there's something about the um, because death is just not something we talk about.
Amanda Hill:People don't talk about death and I'll just write this essay at school recently where death arrived five minutes early. It was such a brilliant piece of writing that the whole essay was about death arriving five minutes early and it really made me think about you know, you live so much of your adult life thinking that you're immortal.
Amanda Hill:You don't conceive of the notion of there being an end to this mortal existence it's a really good thing, and maybe it's only been in the last five years where I've started to feel that sense of mortality, not necessarily for myself, because I think I'm still invincible, but really because of the fact that you start to realize you're not strong as you used to be, the people around you getting older, and I think it's. I think it's really interesting that the one thing that all of us are going to end up having to do is the one thing that none of us ever want to talk about. There are lots of my friends who've gone through a relative dying, but nothing was prepared.
Amanda Hill:No, you're not prepared for it, but even not just kind of even on the emotional lack of preparedness, but even on the where have you put all your documents? How do I know how to help look after everything that you wanted me to look after for you once you're not here? So I've now started to become obsessed with making sure that my life is tidy and that everything is in order, and not because I'm focused on dying, but because I'm focused on, but that's you, though, you're just organised.
Martyn Stewart:I don't think you'd leave anything untied. When it came to your time, I think everything would be in order and straight in nice piles and notes with everything.
Amanda Hill:But this might sound crazy, martin which is you're the first person in my life that's ever been unwell, first person in my life that's ever been unwell, and you're the first time in my life that I've had to confront something that is so painful to me, and I've never been through that with anybody and and so I'm almost I'm learning so much from you about how you're handling everything and I see the way that I might have a headache. I don't know, I can't tell martin, I've got a headache but it's subjective, but we go to.
Amanda Hill:When we went to abbey road, everyone was exhausted because it's working all day. It's kind of engaging with stuff all day, but you're still there. I literally had to kick you out that one day because I could see you falling over like you're the last person to complain. You're the last person still at the party, you're the first person to get there. You're still. In spite of everything, martin, you're still just like making everyone who's got this healthy diagnosis look a bit pathetic, and the fact that you're prepared to talk about something that for so many other people be taboo I'm learning from. I'm learning from you about how to be graceful in in a situation that is so painful. But you're still graceful, martin, and quite rock and roll about it but it's, it's a.
Martyn Stewart:I think living is a privilege.
Amanda Hill:Living is a privilege.
Martyn Stewart:I think it's something we all have, but we don't see it. I've said to you before that my reason for being here, or the rent I have to pay, is for exactly that. I don't have a given right to do anything. My, my mentality is is different. I don't have a right to be able to have a nice easy pathway to something and and.
Martyn Stewart:I and I like that. I like the fact that there are road bumps and I like different curves in the street. And when you get to a T-junction, if you go the wrong way, you know you can always turn around and go back again. And I think if you adopt that attitude, there are people I feed off to, including you, of that positive energy. And when you harvest that, it's almost like plugging in a Tesla, if you like, and saying, okay, I'm charging my batteries off.
Martyn Stewart:I find being around negative people draws out your kind of energy, just fucks you up. So I try to avoid that. But at the same time, I feel like it's a duty to be able to tell them that it's not that bad. It's not that bad, but your energy has done a lot for me. In the couple of years that we've been doing this has done a lot for me. In the couple of years that we've been doing this, I've got to know you as a person far better than I knew you as a kid practical jokes, messing around, laughing, doing all kinds of stuff, monitoring what I was drinking, how many fags I was smoking in the back garden, all of that. And I've got to know this beautiful young lady now who is just from tip, smoking in the back garden, all of that. And I've got to know this beautiful young lady now who is just from tip to toe, just a wonderful human being and things like that about living day to day. It's there in front of us if you want it.
Amanda Hill:Do you feel that we went to see Hamilton the musical, and Indy must have been, let's say, 14. And she starts crying and crying and crying when you get to the song where he says why do you write like you're running out of time? And she's crying in the theatre, she's like Mum. I know why he writes like he's running out of time and indeed, the entire audience knows why he writes like he's running out of time. Indeed, the entire audience knows why he writes like he's running out of time. Everybody knows the end to this story and there have been times when we've been working together and I've been with India, and I've cried like that because I felt like I'm running out of time for you and I can't work hard enough and I can't work fast enough and I can't get enough done.
Amanda Hill:I can't get enough done, and do you feel an urgency about any of the things that you still feel like you want to do and I'd love to understand, like, what's, what's the kind of the urgency in your like soul or the fire in your belly? That's like I have to do this. I have to. There are a few things I've still got to get done, and these are those one of the biggest things that drives me is not letting you down but we could be working each other too hard because you're very trying not to let each other down.
Martyn Stewart:You keep stoking the fire. I don't want to let you down, but I don't want to let you down and I don't want to let myself down. I don't want to let what are and I don't want to let myself down.
Amanda Hill:I don't want to let myself what are the things that you feel most excited about, most excited to, because I don't agree with you, by the way, about that. This is the end.
Martyn Stewart:I believe it's the physical end maybe I'll be the fertilizer for a plant somewhere but there's.
Amanda Hill:there's something about you know, when you talk about the fact that living is a privilege and we don't have a free ride. I believe that we live on by the acts and the deeds that we do, by the what we bring back and I talk to my kids about this all the where you have a duty and obligation to give back to this world and this beautiful planet we are able to inhabit. And I feel that we do live on in those things and I think the work that you've done lives on in so many people's hearts and minds and will drive so many people. You will have shaped so many people's lives, martin, and I think it's not the same traditional, physical mortal coil, but we do live on.
Martyn Stewart:I think we live on through others.
Amanda Hill:We live on through others.
Martyn Stewart:I think we do, I think.
Amanda Hill:We live on through the ideas that you've planted into the universe right, Without question, you live on through ideas.
Martyn Stewart:I just believe in the present and I believe that we make the best of what we have and that's why it hurts me so much to see so many people disregard beauty. That that hurts, that's the most painful thing. I think I have problems with that. I I have more problems with that than my own health. I have problems seeing how man's inhumanity to man, but most of all to the planet, I hate. I hate it. I hate that with vengeance. I can't stand to see suffering. I can't stand to see the animal world suffering, can't stand to see the abuse. You know that's there. That propelled me, that empowered me to go and do what I did. I think if I can get the strength back and stuff, I want to continue to do that. But I get more pain from seeing the planet suffer than I do in my own health and I don't want Tell me about.
Martyn Stewart:I've told Becky this I don't want a funeral, I don't want a service, I don't want people standing around crying and listening to some of my favourite music. I don't want that.
Amanda Hill:Okay, so what do you want?
Martyn Stewart:I just want to. You can't stuck in a plastic bag and thrown into a bin no, you don't.
Amanda Hill:You don't. You want your ashes to go to. You want your ashes to go to Scotland. I do.
Martyn Stewart:I want that, but I don't. I don't want a church service or a service, I just don't want that but you have to find a way to let people celebrate you celebrate.
Martyn Stewart:Celebrate like I'm alive yeah celebrate, you know, have a drink anytime you want, not at a particular day and time, on a sunday at 11 o'clock when his body's gonna be burnt to shit. I don't want that, I don't. You know, I went the early stages, I I went to Spotify and I got a funeral list and I'm picking these songs and I'm sharing it with Becky and I said delete, that would ya. You know, I don't want that. It it it, it it it it it it it, it, it, it, it, it it it it. He's got the song, he's. So he loved the song and he used to wear tartan trousers and he fluffed his hair up and dyed it yellow and he did you know, I don't want.
Martyn Stewart:I want someone to be able to one day in a kitchen say, oh, do you remember him? Oh yeah, that was cool, let's have a drink, not a collection of people feeling really sad. I want people to wear yellow. I want people to dye their hair yellow if they want to do that and and get drunk and you know, do whatever it is. I just don't want that it's. It's all my, I know it's, but it's also negativity. You've been able to make me live on a lot more in people's minds than that would have happened two years ago.
Amanda Hill:But I think the biggest thing, the only thing that makes me sad, the only thing that makes me sad is that I wish we'd started this year oh, yeah, yeah and I I see how you know you and I talk about when we first started doing this, how I think people just thought you're bonkers, like what are they doing and why?
Martyn Stewart:are they doing?
Amanda Hill:it and talk about kissing frogs. It's more like that chicken nicking that goes around saying, hey, do you want to make bread? And everyone says, do you want to make bread? And everyone says, I don't want to make bread with you, but I want to eat the bread. And now you suddenly see that people are finally really getting what we were trying to do. And how do you give nature a voice in every means possible? And I'm seeing this tiny flame that we started a couple of years ago just becoming like so bright now on people's minds. And I've never felt so. I mean, I'm breathless with excitement and how I feel when I wake up in the morning. And that's my only, that's my only sadness, martin is. But you know I also, even with your illness, I have to come to terms with the fact that we might not have started this without you getting out and I've thought that many times but maybe what I mean by maybe, what I mean by the imminence of death is so many things that you think you can delay.
Amanda Hill:You realise you can't delay and I'm trying to work out the learnings that I'm taking from this in terms of if you hadn't have been sick, you'd still be out in the field all the time, martin. You wouldn't have had the time to do any of this, you certainly wouldn't have had the inclination to. I would still be.
Martyn Stewart:I'd still be travelling, you'd still be travelling. That's something I miss right now is the ability to get out, and do you know the?
Martyn Stewart:yeah last week I wanted to go up to okinoki swamp and stick a couple of boxes up there, because the the birds are flying north now from their wintering grounds and there's a lot of warblers and a lot of ground birds and a lot of birds of prey that go through the swamp area and there's some fantastic sounds and as winter comes into spring there's a change in the sound signature and I just couldn't do it, you know, and I'm thinking to myself now should I go tomorrow? If I go tomorrow, it's a four-hour drive. I've got treatment on Friday. Am I going to be right for Friday? Well, should I go Saturday? Then Then I can do it until Tuesday.
Martyn Stewart:Those are the handicaps that I'm facing. I can't say to myself I want to do this, that and the other now, because then I'll start overlooking all the other things. So I like to take it one day at a time and just enjoy what I have. If I start thinking I'd like to go there, I'd like to go there, I'm going to start getting disappointed. I just want to live. You've just experienced another journey on the listening planet podcast. Dive deeper into the world of natural sounds by connecting with us online. Visit our website or follow us on social media. Let the symphony of nature surround you wherever you go. Happy listening.
