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Some folks have stopped feeding their Spring birdies due to the Avian Flu threats that they say "will be just a matter of time in arriving upon our shores". I personally think that's so sad.And although some would accuse me of living in the land of the oblivious in light of such monumental issues, I can assure you that I do not.
I just happen to refuse to allow, at this stage of my life...the almost daily dire warnings of impending doom, to rob me of some of life's simplest joys.

Each year we revert to anxious, excited "kids" with an attitude that is akin only to possibly waiting to open Christmas presents, as we await the first arrival of some of our beautifully feathered tenants. We see to it that we have an ample supply of seed (and of course there is corn for the squirrels as well as the Red-Headed Woodpecker's, Cardinals and Blue Jays), sweet nectar for the brilliant Orioles and long-awaited Hummingbirds. We see that the Wren houses are up and in order, and prepare the small back yard pond for Frank (the frog) and his cohorts.

We can hardly wait to see the bright blue of the bunting and the "yellowing-up" of the little finches. We rush to the windows, or stop dead in our tracks and hold our breaths at the breath-stealing beauty of these wonderful winged little creatures. And we get to watch their every effort to establish their summer homes.
And when the tiny Hummingbirds come, very soon after the Orioles (we think they travel on the same airlines...just different departure and arrival times)...we are elated!We just happened to see our first two Orioles earlier this week, and only yesterday caught two little hummers sipping from the Carlson soda fountain, that is housed in the form of an over-grown plastic feeder colored and shaped like an orange with a green plastic leaf on top.

These little guys put smiles on dreary days and make stepping out into our tiny immediate back yard, a garden wonderland, that I for one, am not willing to give up for the likes of the "white noise" coming at me every day from media.
I am not closing my ears to things that I know I need to be aware of, I'm merely opening my heart to the wonders God hath wrought all around me. I can't imagine life without these simple little pleasures. And it breaks my heart to think that such a world could even exist without them. What with so much cruelty, hatred, violence, ugliness and suffering this whole world wide, I desperately cling to the tiniest bits of lovliness while I have them, knowing full-well that places like Darfur have virtually been wiped clean of them for man's inhumanity to man.

So finding our own bliss in our own little corners of the big world in which there's many sorrows and far too much darkness is not only prudent but necessary.
So if you've come to a place where "feeding your feathery friends" is in question, think of your world sans the lilt of their magnificant song...the incomparible color that we yearn to see from year to year and the happy feeling that just washes over us, just because they've chosen to grace us with their presence another year.
They do not depend upon us, the feed we feed them, or the nectar and oranges we procure...we depend on them!Little feathered fluffs of assurance that just come by each year to let us know that life is still good for so many of us. That we can afford the luxury of a few moments of joy instead of the worry over what may come tomorrow.
God DOES see the sparrow that falls, and I know...especially when I am blessed each new Spring with fine-feathered little reminders, that He watches me.
Have you bought your birdseed yet?

Linda Marie Pharaoh-Carlson©