Force of nature

Thud!! My kid and I look at the window in alarm. Our discussion has revolved around the bird flying in the snow in the yard.

“We really need to put a bird feeder out there for times like these”

“They should have migrated further south, this year”

“That silly bird!! Can’t it see the window??”

We hear it crash against the window.

She runs and draws up the blinds. Thankfully, no hapless bird on the ground, buried in snow. The snow beneath the window is smooth and intact. Whew… We are impressed by the bird’s comeback skills.

Then we see it again. Perched on top of a neglected, lonely, last apple on an otherwise naked, snow-covered tree. It pecks away at the frozen fruit. We admire its tenacity. Okay, I do. My kid is mostly rooting for it to get enough apple.

Look carefully, and closely -- very closely -- you will see a bird perched ON a long neglected, single apple! An easy hour was spent admiring its tenacity in pecking away at the frozen fruit. So happy it found food -- right after it hit our window!

“Look a piece of the peel”, “It would be easier if it didn’t actually sit on the apple”… we stand there for over half an hour.

Refusing to give up, it keeps at it – pecking away, changing angle. It is biting cold outside. The bird has however found food and it simply won’t give up. The whole world seems to have disappeared from its view. All it can focus on, all it must focus on, is the fruit.

Tenacity at its best, purely for survival.  

Nature comes with force and grace and beauty and cruelty, but with never any apologies, never any guilt, never any remorse. It knows its thing. It does its thing.

I wonder what it would be like to be that way. We are after all, a part of nature.

It cannot pause to consider the effect it may have, to be careful, or cautious. It cannot pause to view the havoc it has created. It cannot pause to see how magnificent it is. It cannot pause. It never pauses. It knows its thing. It does its thing.

Just so, the bird must do it thing. For it knows a thing or two about survival.

We notice another bird on the arbor, close by.

“Ooh it’s waiting its turn”

“The one on the apple is really strong and tough” We speculate pecking orders. In a little bit, the other bird takes over – pecking just as furiously on the frozen fruit.  

Before we know it, it’s been over an hour and we have important things to do: sledding and snow cones, mostly.

Our favorite snow cones -- with a topping of maple syrup and lemon juice -- such delicious snow! 

And even if that is mostly what we focus on, a snow day is really all about snow, and slowing down and taking a minute to notice and admire and respect and be humbled even, by nature, and perhaps, figuring out, what our role in it may be.