My intention was to hike with Charlie along the creek and find a good spot for the Lonely Looking Bear to sit. I brought a Rabbit to be his friend.
When I got to the Ice Wall, I stopped to listen. Birds.
Bird song. Not just the Nuthatches or the Cedar Waxwings...no, and not just Cardinals either. A sound...
gosh
a sound I shouldn't hear in January!
Robins? It could NOT be!
Yet there they were. Hundreds of them flocking through the oak trees in the valley. I called Charlie in close and sat at the base of a tree.
Just
Sat
and listened.
You know what? I forgot about the outside world. Whatever was occurring outside that valley was not important. The bird song was important.
Mindful
Every day
I see or I hear
something
that more or less
kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle
in a haystack
of light.
It is what I was born for--
to look, to listen,
to lose myself
inside this soft world--
to instruct myself
over and over
in joy....
~~Mary Oliver