Living With Birds
Years ago, inspired by a trip to the demonstration gardens, we decided trees brought not only continuous beauty, but also, refreshing shade to one’s little plot of land, so we planted many.
The trees are maturing nicely and with this invitation, many species of birds have chosen to occupy the leafy spaces. Beauty is like that, it multiplies and invites. On a daily basis, I encounter birds. I hear them; I watch them and try to understand the rhythm and importance of their brief lives. I can deeply say living with birds has been educational, spiritually inspiring and because we have a hunting cat…. sorrowful. But this is the point of my blog.
It’s important to set down that the birds stay because the presence of a habitat. Nothing particularly compelling about me draws them. Yet, regardless that they need me not, and in fact, prefer my absence, I persist by paying attention, providing water, occasional seeds and aiding them in their times of crisis.
Life is cruel to birds. They're mauled; poisoned; shot by BB guns; they drown in pools; their nests are blown down by heavy winds and their dead humiliated bodies litter the roads. Why bother?
Torn by a guilty conscience about meddling in the lives of wild things and tired of fishing dead birds from the pool and hating my cat to a point of abuse, I have, in seasons, given up on birds; deciding it best that an arm’s length approach would preserve and protect me from the untidiness of it all. It works for awhile, but then I look outside, see the doves waiting patiently by the feeder and I can’t help it. The doves always draw me back. Beauty is like that; you have to be willing to accept it all in its fallen state.
Deciding to share life with birds is similar to deciding to share life with others of the human sort. At times a sense of comfort, connection and beauty exists in the co-mingling, but then the inevitable reality of the pain which belongs to getting involved with living things unfolds. This is the “Gordian Knot” for me which dominates much of my internal dialogue.