The juncos

There is a Nor'easter bearing down on the East Coast on this post-Christmas Monday. Brrrr... is the sentiment of many warm blooded people. I am loving the cold turn of events, since my upstate New York blood thrives in the white stuff. There is white blowing snow and winds whipping around, causing my 3 wind chimes to dance with delight!

The storm began last evening and I admit to being a bit concerned as I did have a couple of kids unaccounted for, and one threatening an ER visit. Thankfully, I was pretty sure my NEW heating system would be carrying me through this storm warmly :-) !

I tromped out to the back porch and saw the cutest little junco eating daintily the seeds I'd placed out earlier in the day. I knew he would be hungry, so threw another handful of seeds and decided to wait until morning for more.

Sure enough, at morning light there were several juncos feeding, some scratching through the snow to get their grub for the day, desperately moving aside the obstacles in their way.

In the living room, my reliable guard dog, Perfect, was relaxing from dog duty and guarding the tree. Occasionally she lifts her head and looks around, but sleeping is the mode of the moment. I am frankly not at all sure she would even wake up if a burglar entered in the front door, so being safe needs to depend on other things.

As my morning goes, I made coffee, of course, and looked off and on to the back porch where the little juncos happily fed.







 It didn't surprise me at all to see another friend had joined the meal, a squirrel who seemed oblivious to me at the window or the juncos batting at the snow all around him.

Well, suddenly, I noticed there were NO juncos, none! Not a sparrow in sight, not a movement of anyone in the trees waiting their turn at the table of good fortune. Where were the birds?

As an aside, I am a believer in watching nature for clues to life around us, knowing that God made a great natural system and paying attention is key in the wild . (I also watch Animal Planet avidly , what does that tell you?:-) )

Got my coffee, settled in for a nice cozy reading session, but thought to myself that maybe I could find a cardinal to photograph, so headed for the kitchen to peek out at the back porch.

Hear my scream? See my dash to get the camera? Notice how SMART my juncos were? Feel sorry for Mr. Squirrel? Observe that dog Perfect lay silently throughout this potential life threatening attack from a predator bigger than most even imagine?

Aric jumped up and scared her(or him) away, fortunately not before I snagged my proof. He disputes this turn of events, but hey, where are more pictures?

In less than 5 minutes I looked again at the porch, and there everyone was, eating merrily, so I knew the search for a hawk was pointless, he had gone on to better feeding grounds.

Well, that was my morning excitement.

There is a moral to my story, as usual, just ask my kids.

I am sometimes like a junco, busily feeding on all that life has to offer,  knowing that these are blessings from a kind and generous God Who loves me.

I need to be alert, to pay attention to what is happening around me. Sometimes just sitting and watching me there is an Enemy as large as that hawk, ready to settle in and surprise me . I want to be aware of his presence and leave the aimless eating mode when he is around. I want to be far from his talons. Unlike my dog named Perfect, there is One Who is Perfect, and He is watching, ever alert and ever able to guard me with no trouble, because He loves me. His name is Jesus.

Merry Christmas. I love Jesus. I love my birds.

Simply Thank You GOD.

One of the things I like to do is reflect on life within and around me, as anyone who has read my blogs knows. Hey, that's why I write a blog!

The last blog I wrote completely in my head (an unusual thing for me , I prefer writing as I think ) and it never ended up as a blog posting. It was good too, believe me :-) !It had been about Thanksgiving and there was a list and it was boring and blah, blah, blah. I wondered to myself if our thankful hearts become just a list, how thankful are we -really? Just people of God making up the random, immediate, usual stuff kind of Thanks God! obligatory task. Reminded me of cheer-leading and superficiality and I felt ungrateful.

The week since Thanksgiving has been one, however, in which my senses have been on high alert. When I wrote senses , I meant senses in a different way than hearing, seeing, smelling, touching, and tasting
sense.  I am speaking of my gratitude attitude sense. The sense of truly understanding how many good and perfect gifts are mine, just by seeing and acknowledging their existence.

Here's how the week went for me , and I am going to stream line it into the things that just jumped out at me when I was on high alert, needing to thank God in the midst of the mundane.

First of all, a young woman friend , who is almost more of a Facebook friend than a real time life friend, offered to take my Blog and practice her skills at Web something or other. I am not an internet expert, so have even forgot what it is called! I hesitated, thinking that I was fond of my own page and did this mean my creativity was ugly and unnecessary? See the struggle playing out? She offered again, and so I decided to take the plunge, let go of the reins of rights to a web designing talent I did not own, and told her my password. Less than an hour later and with no drama or flare, I was informed it was ready. Here's the thing : she made it perfectly ME, and she knows me barely at all!!!! She had my favorite dogwood tree picture(I took it ! ) and she had the Psalms and she had the scribbling illustration....and as soon as I told her how much I loved birds...there one was!

Second experience following closely behind the first was a trip to the  Conowingo Dam with my friend Jean. 'Randomly' reading about a place to observe Bald Eagles in large numbers in a newspaper article, I was determined to go see it. I even gave up meeting BFF Judy for a lunch and shopping spree, because seeing these eagles was way higher on my list ( hahahaha! get it? ). I enlisted Jean's supportive presence right after church and off we drove! I was stoked, ready for an Eagle and a burger. Well, about that cheeseburger sub, can I say that not all burgers are created equal? Enough said on that subject because the Eagle observation ahead was worth that blasted burger!

I am not kidding when I say that I could easily have stayed at this Dam sanctuary for hours! Even the Dam was beautiful and God even threw in several other birds for us to see!

My hands were numb, my heart was racing, and I was awed by these magnificent birds -my eagles. One of my favorite passages in the Bible has always been in Isaiah 40:28-31 and then verse 31 was screaming in my head- But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like Eagles...!!!! It was as if God was whispering in my ear that I too, after years of utter and complete exhaustion and discouragement, would be renewed and soar again! Oh my, a wonderfully freeing, anticipatory thought to be thankful for.

Thirdly, since I am making my own list, my daughter Julie Grace called me. Julie is my baby and she is 26 years old and the mother of Ethan, one of my 11 blessings called grandchildren. I love Julie but she is not a warm and fuzzy kind of daughter, which is also part of what makes me love her more.She needed my assistance in getting their Christmas Tree! and could she use my car and also did I want to go too??!? Words to make a lonely mother's hear warm and melt !

When I thought this week could not contain anything new, I came home to find a Lands End box on my doorstep. Now I am forgetful, I'll give you that much, but I am pretty certain I did not order anything this week from Lands End! Amazon- yes, Pottery Barn-yes, but Lands End? just to be sure I waited to open it until this morning in case one of the kids used my address as a Santa's Workshop kind of place. There inside was a package with a bow and a note for me... love from Becky! Oh my, a surprise package from Becky, my long- distance, beautiful young friend who always chooses the most perfect gifts for me! I could not wait and sneaked a look -do not tell this to my children because I am a die-hard never open anything until the exact day  kind of girl!!! It is a BAG with my initials and it is orange. SIGH. I love that she got me something that felt like nobody even could know I wanted and there it was. How is this possible, God of the hearts? I then re-wrapped it. :-)

Last night our church had a WIC (Women in the Church) Christmas Tea that I almost missed because I was so tired. Well, blast it, I am too young for missing everything because of work exhaustion! so I went. Beautiful Gift. Not just the decorations and the foods and the reminders from friend Darlinda of God's Faithfulness, but the parting warm hug from my friend Myrtle. I was out by my car, leaving and feeling like I wished I had dressed up, I wished I had done something significant, I wished I was more this and less that.....Myrtle just gave me a HUG and said " You are so beautiful and have such a smiling warm face, thank you for coming ". That was God, reminding me that my list is never ending, His love for me is undeserving , and I need to keep being on high alert because Thanksgiving is followed by Christmas - and He doesn't stop giving.