While I sip my morning coffee, I always spend a few minutes watching the bird feeder on our deck. It is close by, but I use binoculars anyway.
Yesterday morning, a small bird visited. At first glance, he seemed nondescript--a dull brown, ordinary in size, nothing to write home about. Ah, but seen through binoculars, he was a marvel of beauty, his wing feathers lovingly arranged in intricate patterns of variegated grays and browns. When he turned around to surprise me with the burst of bright red on his tail, I almost laughed out loud. For a few delightful minutes, I sat savoring, refreshed and enlivened by Beauty shining through.
Later, the day became challenging. By evening, it was downright hard. Ah, but just as I was beginning to lose heart, the memory of that little bird with its burst of bright red tailfeathers came shining through the gloom like a beacon.
As if that weren’t enough, this morning I saw a tender green shoot on one of the living room plants.
“When I forget that the whole world / is holy, . . . even when my cheeks are tear-stained / and my body tightens with fear / that is when . . . the rabbit will stand / on his back legs to nibble on mint, / or the meadow will blaze with the day’s / last slant of sunlight and my heart opens / so wide that inside the fear rises praise.” Rosemerry Trommer “Amen”
“The God of hope. . . .” Romans 15:13