One of the things I have appreciated this week is the return of birdlife, filling the air with their distinctive calls and song. Few birds stick around for the northern winter, preferring to fly south to warmer lands, and so for the past several weeks, I have heard a new bird call almost daily, each bringing a smile to my face: the chicken-like cluck, cluck, cluck of the sage grouse; the vibrant weep of the American robin; the soft phew of the mountain bluebird; the harsh chook-chook-chook of a stellar jay; the warble of the finches; the very deep hooo of a great gray owl.
It might be my imagination, but it seems the forest welcomes their arrival as well, as the trees start to blossom, release their pollen, and grow millions of new leaves. A time to begin again, as if everything shakes off the harshness of winter or the severity of unusual weather patterns like the heat dome last summer. Ready to embrace a new season. Witness the birth of fawns, chicks, kits, and pups.
The promise of lazy summer days basking in my lounge chair, reading one of the many good novels I hope to get to, running through the sprinkler to cool off from the heat, eating lunch in my screened-in porch, watching the sunset, and listening to birds salute the end of day and the beginning of night. Finding solace in simple things.
Dawn
Dawn breaks for no one
drifts over the hill
spills into my home
sneaks past the curtain
dances on the feather comforter
before flying on
to the forest
as the sun rises
suggesting a blue-sky day.
Colors mingle
the world wakes
sunlight drops from branches
warms the earth
melts a spring frost
a bluebird sings
then two more echo
the joy
of a new day.
How did you find solace this week?
Sharon
2022. Sharon Kreider. All Rights Reserved
