A delicate balance...

Globally, we are living in precarious and delicate times.

That a thing the size of a spec of dust can drastically change the world

in such a short time is, in a word, 'phenomenal'.

My days are filled with menial tasks, as probably most peoples are...the day to day usual bits of feeding, cleaning and for those of 

us lucky enough to be able to get outside.

But even that has changed.

I walk the dog twice, sometimes with one other person and of course we are socially distancing ourselves.

It is my saving grace to GET OUTSIDE and to watch the natural world,

somehow oblivious to the massive shift that is transforming us by the hour.

Or perhaps the birds and wildlife do notice that something is different?

It's quieter, less air traffic, less pollution in the air, less cars on the road.

Last December, on a walk, I had spotted a little nest perched in a tree,

out of reach...a tiny round swirl of grass...

I had been keeping an eye on it and wondering how I might be able to get it down since whoever had started it, clearly had abandoned the 

thought of using it last spring....

Yesterday I looked for it and it was no longer in the tree branches.

And there it was, on the ground. 

It's fragile structure picked up on a wind and tossed to the earth...

What a gift!

I picked it up and it weighed almost nothing.

But, oh! it's construction was Something!!

Horsetail and fine, long grass with minute bits of moss were the bricks and mortar of this house...

The worker, with nothing but wings and a tiny beak to forage

the materials and engineer such a marvel.

It had withstood, rains and snow and gale force winds all

through the winter until just a few days ago.

It may have been mowed over by the grass cutter if I

hadn't of seen it....

And so here we are, as a human race being battered and swept away 

by things we cannot see and I feel we are all as fragile

as this little nest....

The questions we are all asking ourselves...can we weather the storm

and bear the weight of the heaviness that surrounds us now?

Let's remember that right now this world isn't as big as it seems.

Collectively we can send love and light and strength to each other.

For certain there will be those who will be tossed to the 

ground and lost to the darkness.

 But for those of us fortunate enough to have a strong structure,

reach out, catch them if you can.

Do what it takes to come through to the other side.

I send you all the best.

Remember, in the words of Emily Dickison...

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.