Little by little I am settling into my new home. I set out the birdbath within a day or two after receiving my new house keys. I erected my bird feeders only three days ago and already I am rewarded with many feathered visitors. It fills me with such delight. The best part is that I have a tree directly outside the window and I can view the birds while sitting here at my desk. When spring arrives so that I can open the window, I will be able to listen to them, too. I even noticed an old nest in the tree from a previous season. I must try to discover what bird species made the nest and if they will reuse it come spring. It is a writer’s paradise! The only thing that would make it better would be the presence of a water body and waterfowl.
My love of birds is something that I know I share with many. I have always presumed that my love for waterfowl stemmed from when I was a mere toddler living with my grandparents. They bought me a duck for Easter that imprinted on me and followed me everywhere. My grandmother had chickens, as well. I had to give up my own chickens a year and a half ago, when I first moved to Wyoming. I am hoping to have chickens again since now I have the perfect space to make a chicken coop.
The other morning I became deeply saddened because I realized that the hundreds of species that we are losing on a daily basis – not only birds, but butterflies, frogs, fish, coral, insects, and many mammals – are gone forever. Just like the dinosaurs, all that will remain is their fossils. Are we to become a planet of only human beings and domesticated animals? It is an unbearable thought for me. I love nature as I love my own life. Our desecrated planet is our sacred home. How can we have treated it, the very thing that sustains us, with such irreverence? Is it too late to save it? The precarious state of our world has made me profoundly grateful for each day and for each bird whose life I can ease. Buying bird seed and sharing what I have with birds and other animals is my tithe. In giving to them, my heart is full.
