Finding Harmony in Change
(Posted August 25, 20210
“may my faith always be at the end of the day like a hummingbird...returning to its favorite flower.”
― Sanober Khan, Turquoise Silence
I’m returning this Sunday like a hummingbird to my favorite flower of a Church. It will be wonderful to see you all again, after two months on crutches and sporting a locking leg brace. I have only begun in the last two weeks to be mobile again, enough to enjoy what’s going on around me as the summer rushes headlong toward the Fall.
Sunday’s Service Starts at 11 a.m. followed by our noontime picnic!
Outside my window there are very few birds right now, with the exception of the hummingbirds. Out on the deck where I have a large nectar feeder, it’s the male ruby throats that constantly hit the feeder, fighting among themselves for the right to perch. The main reason they do this is to load up on calories before sometime next week, when they will start flying south on their long journey from here back to Central America. We’ll have the females with us all the way to the last week in September.
Of Birds and Humans
But then, why are the woods so quiet right now? Where is the birdsong? At first I thought that there might be some ecological problem related to the bird virus going around. But then I realized that this is exactly as it should be: at the end of the summer, birds of all kinds are presented with a wealth of natural food. There are fruited berry bushes and lawns filled with seed for the taking. Right now they don’t need to remain close to our human homes. Their fledglings are all out of the nest. They are free. They don’t need our bird feeders because the end of summer presents them with so many places to go and things to sample, until the frost sets in. The same has been true for all of us humans as the summer winds down -- so many things to do after such a long time quarantined in our homes.
Harmony in a Time of Change
In the last few days I’ve noticed that the songs and squawks of birds are returning to the woods. So too is the disjointed harmony of their singing, proclaiming without words that a time of change, a time of growth and unsurpassed beauty lies just around the corner.
How fitting it is that all of us will gather this Sunday for our end-of-summer Tent Service and Picnic. It’s a time to bring our voices together and yes – to be joyfully serenaded by the Blue Moon Quartet that is part of the Mad Hatters who sing such wonderful barbershop harmonies. That will be our focus for Sunday: harmony and eating!
Thanks in advance to those of us who are bringing side dishes and dessert to go with our hot dogs and hamburgers. In these last days before the rush of school and schedules for September clutter our heads, we look forward to gathering, eating and laughing together. See you there!