| Author |
Message |
    
Justmelaura
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 27, 2001 - 10:30 pm: |     |
O Happy Day! It's a brave new world! Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus! I've spotted my first crocus in the garden! Hope springs eternal, let the whole world rejoice. Woo Hoo! |
Kestrel
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 27, 2001 - 11:00 pm: | |
A Song In The Dark
I thought I heard it as I got out of my truck...and for a moment, my breath caught somewhere near my heart. It was very early morning near the end of February. The eastern sky held only the grayest hint of dawn. Off to the West, the full moon cast its ghostly glow through the icy bare branches and over the snow gripped land. The temperature was somewhere in the low 20's.
I listened hard but heard only the sound of my footsteps crunching in the snow and the ice muted gurgle of a nearby brook. Perhaps my ears had only heard an imagined hope...I walked on. Then, as I approached a small bridge spanning a frozen brook, the song again pierced the dark winter air. Closer now...Unmistakable.
I stood on the bridge and listened to the mixture of clear, sweet notes and buzzy trills as they floated out of the darkness in five-second bursts bracketed by thirty seconds of silence. Again and again it repeated now; incongruously summer-like, but so earnest it seemed the notes would surely push aside the darkness and finally melt away the cold, harsh dreariness of this endless winter.
Though I could not see it, I knew that somewhere in the darkness there was a tiny brown bird singing this unique song. It was a song borne to him through thousands of ancestors and urged instinctively on by the ticking of an inner clock linked with the movements of the sun, moon and stars.
I knew also that the song was for other members of his species. To them, the song said, " I am here. I have survived this winter. This is my place. I will defend it. I am searching for a mate to share my nest and bring forth another generation. And they too will sing my song."
Still, I could not help but feel that somehow the song was meant for me and all the rest of the world. For, over the years, I have found that just when it seems that winter will never end and my spirits are overwhelmed by its gloom, I have heard this song. For me, it is a song that signifies all the courage, determination and hope in the renewal that spring brings to a winter weary world? So then, is it not fitting that this tiny creature that first so bravely brings us this hope when we seem to need it most is a bird we have chosen to name the "Song Sparrow"? |
Nakaille
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 28, 2001 - 7:03 am: | |
Kestrel: Beautiful writing! And a beautiful moment described. Thanks.
Bacata |
Melidere
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 28, 2001 - 7:30 am: | |
one of my favorite songs is about a sparrow.
Sparrow (2:50)
P. Simon, 1964
Who will love a little sparrow
Who's traveled far and cries for rest?
"Not I," said the Oak Tree
"I won't share my branches with no sparrow's nest
And my blanket of leaves won't warm her cold breast"
Who will love a little sparrow
And who will speak a kindly word?
"Not I," said the Swan
"The entire idea is utterly absurd
I'd be laughed at and scorned if the other swans heard."
Who will take pity in his heart
And who will feed a starving sparrow?
"Not I," said the Golden Wheat
"I would if I could but I cannot I know
I need all my grain to prosper and grow"
Who will love a little sparrow?
Will no one write her eulogy?
"I will," said the Earth
"For all I've created returns unto me
From dust were ye made and dust ye shall be" |
Mem
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 28, 2001 - 8:45 am: | |
Curb? You cooking tonight? |
Algebra2
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 28, 2001 - 9:40 am: | |
Any train riders notice the little little baby ducks in the marsh between Newark and the tunnel. Very cute. |
Curb
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 28, 2001 - 9:17 pm: | |
The grills fired up!
Heeere sparrow, sparrow. |
Mtierney
| | Posted on Thursday, March 1, 2001 - 10:41 am: | |
Justmelaura/Krestal/Melidere/Bacata/Algebra:Thank you! It is our humanity which makes us one! |
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