This Moment

Hello Friends,

   After writing on Blogger since 2007,  I began posting to Substack some months ago, while still posting here. But this will be my last post on this blog, as I have been paying a monthly fee to the company that sends out the emails each time a new post appears and there is no need for that on Substack.  This blog as it is as of this post will remain for a while but all the posts I have ever made are also on my Substack, as well.

  If you still like what you read here, I hope you will join my Earthy Blessings posts at that Substack address.  https://annbodling.substack.com  There is no cost to subscribe. 

Thank you for reading all these years.

   Gratefully,
        Ann

 

Today it is too easy
to take the cardinals’
February chorus
for granted
when
only a few days
ago I stopped
in wonder
at their
first notes

My mind rushes
ahead
looks forward
to the first
phoebe’s song
when
all along
the cardinals bid me
“Stay with us
stay here
stay now.”

                            Image from the late Bob Moul's Pbase gallery

At the Opening of the Day

Jubilant are the robins' songs
in the dark
before the dawn,
greeting the day from as far away as I can hear,
waves of music drifting through the sleepy landscape,
as if every robin in the world were singing.

Suddenly, 
as if the conductor has lowered his baton,
some mysterious cue quiets them and,
as their song subsides,
their attention turns to
matters of survival.
And nest building.

The towhees are back,
and the thrashers,
and the chipping sparrows,
all self-importantly announcing their arrival amid
the melodies of white-throats and titmice,
Carolina wrens and both chickadees,
cardinals and a downy woodpecker,
a cacophony of sound,
like an orchestra tuning up,
voices almost
indistinguishable.

How can a person think with all this noise?
Perhaps that is just the point.
What if all the busy humans stopped,
and listened,
and accepted this moment,
and its invitation
to noticing,
to reverence,
to caring,
to stillness
at the opening of this day?