Snow Days

For those who are unaware (but I highly doubt this), the Midwest has just experienced a blizzard and is under a state of emergency. Almost every business closed their doors, and all government offices even shut down for the day. St. Joseph and Elkhart county warned that only emergency vehicles should be on the road. Snow throwers and the scraping of shovels could be heard in all neighborhoods. I got text messages from friends who were going stir crazy with cabin fever over just one day of being snowed in.

While humankind went into a state of panic and confusion over what to do with 2+ feet of snow, do you know who was completely unaffected by all of this?

The birds and other animals, that's who.




My mother is the bird whisperer, and I am not kidding about this. She has spent years cultivating our back yard and turning it into a kingdom for all winged animals. There must be 5-10 bird feeders outside and 2 bird baths. She creates this peanut butter concoction that she puts in holes inside this wooden feeder, and the birds go bad for it.



She could tell you better than I all the variations of birds that she's seen in our yard. There is a "Birds of Michigan" book that she keeps by the window where she marks each bird she's seen come to her feeders. I've seen cardinals, blue jays, chickadees, sparrows, and several different types of woodpeckers. (Those are my favorites -- I like their red heads.) Sometimes I think that our back yard could rival the National Aviary.



While all of us humans were running in circles over unplowed streets, stuck vehicles, closed retailers, and snow days from school and work, nature just kept going. The rhythm and life just kept on its course. Squirrels chased, birds flighted, deer hid in the bushes, and their lives went on living as blissful and naturally as any other day.



I think I should like to construct the philosophy of my life around the simplicity of a bird.