Buoys on the Side

There is a little seafood shack on Shiloh Road that I have driven by many times in the past few years. In the warmer months, the Maine Bay & Berry Company sells seafood from the shack, as well as other seasonal items. This time of year, though, they operate from an indoor location in Lemont. So no seafood was being sold from the shack on this day.

However, I've looked longingly at those colorful buoys and always wanted to stop. On this morning, on my way back to work after a doctor appointment, I stopped for a two-minute photo shoot: pull over onto the berm, hop out of the car, snap three or four photos, hop back in, and go. I finally got my photo, hooray! So there is the story of the picture above.

In totally unrelated news, when my husband and I got home from our town errands and a quick gameland hike on Sunday, I was putting things away, when I heard a loud THUMP on the deck door windows and saw something small and gray/brown hit them.

What, could somebody possibly have THROWN something at the window? I looked out to discover a small gray/brown bird, sitting stunned on the deck. And immediately asked my husband (who is generally the one who tends to the birds in our yard) to go out and check on it.

He put on a pair of garden gloves, got a box, and went out and offered the box to the bird for it to recuperate in; once offered, the little bird walked right into it. My husband then placed the box up on the deck bench where it might be somewhat safer from ground-based predators (such as the little gray neighbor kitty who loves to hang out in our yard).

My husband told me he took one glove off and gently stroked the bird, checking for injuries (none) and finding it quite soft to the touch. While doing so, he offered the bird some quiet words of encouragement.

About twenty minutes later, he went back out to check on the bird. It tweeted at him twice, then lifted up, up, and away, flying off, and landing in a nearby bush, where it began to sing a sweet song! I looked out to see the big, bright smile on my husband's face, plus his two-thumbs-up!: Mission accomplished! :-)

Needless to say, my husband was delighted to be involved in the process of the wee bird's recovery, and we shared many smiles and laughter over the little bird and its rescue. Perhaps it would have been fine on its own, but it was fun to be a helper, to be involved in offering kindness to one of God's creatures.

If you can believe it, for once, I took no pictures of the bird. When I first saw it, it looked very confused and injured. And I did not want to take a photo of an injured and possibly dying bird; not for you, and certainly not for me.

So I do not have a picture of the little bird we helped on this day. But I looked at the deck door window and found one tiny bit of evidence - a small gray feather, very soft looking, stuck to the outside of the window where the bird originally hit.

On Monday morning, I took a quick snapshot of the tiny feather, and while it's not a great photo by any standards, I've placed it in the extras to document the event. The feather is a talisman. It makes me happy to remember this story. Isn't it always better to be kind. . . . ?

I wondered quietly to myself after that how the little bird will feel now about coming to our feeder for snacks. Will it feel more bonded to my husband now that he touched it gently and helped rescue it? I cannot know for sure, but it would please me to think so.

I came across a bird quote on the Internet that I loved in the instant I first read it, and it seems sort of related to the bird story, so I'll place it here. For I feel the bird may have been marked by us, just as we were marked by it, as joint emissaries of peace between human and bird kind.

"I will write peace on your wings and you will fly all over the world."
- Sadako Sasaki.

Isn't that just a lovely image?  :-)  It is my tradition to end my postings with a soundtrack song. In my title to this blip, I was sort of tongue-in-cheekily thinking of the film Boys (Buoys) on the Side. So let's let my song be from that soundtrack. Here is Stevie Nicks, with Somebody Stand by Me.

I dedicate this song to the little bird, who lived, and flew, and sang.
Oh, that we should all get a happy ending when we most need one.
Be well, little one. 
Peace. <3