Birds....
I don't see as many birds as I used to see. I remember growing up and birds were everywhere. I was always hearing
their sweet and comforting sound. I wondered to myself...are they chirping, singing to others? Are they sending a message
to other birds? Do other birds understand this communication much like humans communicating their desires to
others?
In the past 10-20 years I have noticed there are not as many birds. What I took for granted--hearing birds
chirping, singing....there have been so many times-- silence; despite the fact that there are many trees around where I
live....and thinking to myself...there have to be worms, bugs and berries still around for them.  Where the birds?
What happened?

An especially very sad time for me was when I was on the patio, not long ago, and saw a large black bird--perhaps a crow--carrying off a baby bird. I found myself feeling extreme hatred for the baby snatcher bird..then, shortly afterwards, watching the mamma bird come back to her nest and finding her baby was gone. Her calls of grief and distress apparent. I found myself relating to her calls, having lost a baby myself, and questioning to this day the unfairness of it. I had no ideas that birds really gave a damn if one of their babies was missing.

I guess I was just ignorant and didn't think that a bird's brain was capable of feeling that intense an emotion.
And growing up in an era where "bird brain" was a common expression, it was hard to imagine birds really "think".

Until that day....when the poor mother bird cried--and the most despairing cry I have ever heard, while flying from branch to branch, then tree to tree--to structure to structure...calling for its baby. I cried for the bird's pain--feeling foolish for letting such a "mundane" creature control my thoughts. I found myself becoming protective and wishing there was a way to share to this bird what I had witnessed and gone through---"your baby is gone, I'm sorry, accept it and move on...I'm sorry."

It was so pitiful the poor bird never would truly know what happened to its baby. And for the first time in my life I attached what I had been through in my life to a creature I thought I was "better than" or "lower than me". And I hoped at that time that God helps me realize that pain in my life is no greater than a bird's. Pain is pain. A great lesson in perspective for me.


I just went out for my one of my many smoke breaks a while ago and noticed a flock of birds. There was a leader and the wing movements appeared to me to be matched to one bird....leading, guiding the other birds. Symmetry. The lead bird would dip, the other birds would dip. The "leader" would soar way up high, and the others would soar up high. Direction--these birds knew the direction they should follow and Trust---these birds knew it was okay to trust one of their own to lead them to safety.

The trust that the rest of the flock would have in that one bird--who appeared as if he knew what to do --amazed me. What is seemingly simple--yet has been so complicated to me, and my trusting other people, could be the difference between life and death for a bird.  They are a team, united. They have complete trust in one of their own who has "been there, done that." Complete faith....now I know I have to trust fellow human beings--just like birds do their own kind...for it could mean the difference in life or death for me.

I know from living my 55 years that I am not much of a leader. I am most comfortable following someone who
has proven they know the route...that's okay. I am fine with that. The main thing is survival. The birds have traveled the journey, the "heat" , the "spurs", the "rough terrain" and have survived...so can I. If it is good enough for birds, it can be good enough for me.