I cannot wait for Spring time to come!That means that we will have bird songs waking us up in the mornings!
And it isn't just 'birds'...because birds are like people and you can't just say 'people' for your friends, because nobody will even know who you mean. You can't just say 'people'.
You have to say: Ryan and Tyler and Amanda and Beatrice. They are all different and they are all somebody else. They have their own names and they all have their favorite color. They live in a house that is not like somebody elses. They like different TV shows, and different songs and different stories and different FOOD. (But probably, they all like ice cream too!)
Well, that is just like for the birds. They have different nests. Some make their nests with string and bits of shiny stuff and paper and leaves and some make their nests in the tree trunks and some by the water and some in grass and some in bushes and some in houses that people make, and some birds live in branches or make twig houses, or on ledges, or on pebbles, or under crops, or under the eaves of people houses, or in forests, or inside chimneys or in mud. Plus, they all have different colors and sizes of eggs. So even if the momma bird isn't home and you can't see her...you can hurry and look real close at the eggs and then remember, remember, remember, while you run into the house to look in a book or on the computer and find out what the baby eggs will break out of their shells to be! Because Bluebird moms will always have Bluebird babies. And Meadowlark moms will always have baby Meadowlark birds. That is very terrific to me and that is why I like to climb trees sometimes. But I am careful not to touch the eggs or the mommy bird will fly back and think that I am in charge and won't take care of her babies anymore.
And that is why I don't want to just say 'Birds'...They all have different names and so I want to say Bluebirds or Cardinals or Gray Catbirds and Brown Headed Cowbirds and Whooping Cranes and Crows and Mourning Doves and Rock Doves and Mallard Ducks and Bald Eagles and Golden Eagles and Great Egrets and Peregrine Falcons and House Finches and Northern Flickers and Goldfinches and Canadian Geese and Red-Tailed Hawks and Great Blue Herons and Blue Jays and Kestrels and Killdeers and Loons and Meadowlarks and Mockingbirds and Robins and Owls and Osprey and Starlings and Whip-poor-wills and Turkeys and Wrens and Marbled Murrelets and Horned Puffins and Pigeons.
PLUS, they all sing different notes for their songs. But they all sing! My daddy said that if only the best Singing Birds sang, then the forests would be silent. He told me that every bird has a special sound and that all of them together make a beautiful song. "Hadley, what if the birds didn't sing because they thought some other kind of bird sang better?" OH MY! That would be sad to have Spring and no sounds AT ALL! Then he told me that sometimes people get silly like that and think that they shouldn't do things because someone else might do it better. That is silly, silly to the max!...Plus, it is important and I need to think about that. I just have to remember that I can try all kinds of things, even if I am not the best at it. ALL of us are important to make the whole song or whatever we are making or doing. I JUST have to DO MY PART. ..and that is good enough.
I read something else that is pretty much incredible and super duper quad-looper IMPORTANT! The baby bird has to peck its own way out of its egg OR IT WILL DIE! I am so not kidding about this. It has to crack its own egg by its own self so that it will get stronger and stronger and if it gets out by itself then it will be a bird. So all the rest of us have to be very very patient about waiting and stuff. Plus, we have to wait for Spring to come too. That's just how it is.
So Luci found a book in the library about birds too... (well, she found it right in my hand!), because we want to know all about birds and stuff and she believed me about that. And we could only check one book out at a time, but when I had to choose between the two books in my hand...well, I just couldn't pick one and so Luci said she would get the other one. We did paper, rock, scissors, and that is how I got the book about the bird egg colors and she got the other one. There couldn't be a better friend than Luci anywhere from here to Antartica or anywhere. The book I checked out has lots of pictures in it, but she has lots of poems in hers...which when I really think about it, is mine too, sorta. "Let's just share the books Luci," I said, and she said, "OK." Because I also want poems too and I am going to copy one down right here in my journal so I can give Luci back her book in the morning. So here is a poem called: CRADLED NEST (because that is the title of it):
Climbers of trees
makers of swings
marble players
designers of dreams
all chores of childhood
and these must be done
...for miracles are also
at play in the Sun.
The moment...
I held my first found nest,
entwined twigs, paper,
sundry strands of hair,
with reverent hands and rapid heart,
I cradled it ....softly there.
Everyone knows about Birds...
their names,
their colors,
their wings,
yet now
beholdingtheir tiny home;
some mud,
bits of leaf,
and string.
Though Birds had been
Singing all along
from that moment
I began listening to their
SONG.
