The songbirds are back.

Kathy Sporre ♦ April 30, 2013 ♦ Leave a comment

It’s about time. I don’t know if it has been a stubborn winter or a reluctant spring, but the songbirds are finally back.

I notice when they take their leave in the fall and miss them terribly in the silent, snowy winter. I can’t wait until they return in the spring, and this year it’s been a longer wait than usual.

I have developed a special fondness for redwing blackbirds. There is something in their song that makes my heart sing. They are part of my world that I don’t take for granted – anymore. It was only a few years ago that I realized the magic of their song and the important, but mostly unidentified part they play in my life. Now I wait for their return like a mother would for a child who has been away too long.

They love the marshlands behind the lake where I live, and make their summer homes there. Walking down the gravel road with soggy wetlands on either side I find myself immersed in the land of the blackbirds – at least for a few months every year.

These birds have been a constant in my life. They have been as much a part of the landscape as are the lake, the woods and the wetlands.  I wonder why it took me so long to gain this degree of consciousness of and appreciation for them? Perhaps it is because as a child I migrated to my winter home before they did, and I returned to my summer home after they arrived. Now that this is my permanent home, I am more aware of the full circle of life here. I notice their coming and going because I am planted here now.

Today, they are also a link between my past and my present. A constant link that can be counted on year after year. Perhaps this is one of those precious gifts that is bestowed only upon those who are being refined by age.™

They bring life back with them in the spring, and I feel a sense of hope upon their arrival. There is a sense of comfort in their expected, and much-anticipated return. The march of life presses onward with the migration of the songbirds; especially in their return. My life marches on in concert with them.

ENVIRONMENTAL WELLNESS – Go green! Include nature in your life: get a pet, plant a garden, visit local parks and walking trails, and make sure that the indoor environment you live and work in is healthy.