quote: ....a hiker, separated from her group, met a mountain lion on the trail. She sang to it and got past safely.

I'm continually amazed at how much other creatures respond to our music. Only domesticated animals pay any attention to our speaking voices, except to run away in fear. But birds often approach and join in when I sit outside and sing, and a forest full of cicadas once stopped chirping when they heard me trying to accompany them on a wooden tongue drum, and then came back in thundering force following my rhythm.

Claire, that's a wonderful mean-girl story. Another thing that always amazes me is how little the creatures of our own species respond to our music.