Doves and Nests

Have you ever really watched birds build a nest? I got that chance the other day on my walk from my car to my work. I had to stop and watch this pair of doves building their nest. Dove are those kind of birds that are monogamous and believe me, this pair had been together for a while - I could tell.

The dad was trying so very hard to bring the mom some great nesting material. She, I do believe, was already "with child" or just cranky because everything he brought her just wasn't suitable. He would find the best piece of something, fly it up to her, she would take a look at it and then just turn her head and snub the precious piece he brought her.

I watched this interaction for several of what I thought were very choice pieces of nest material until .....dad flew down to the sidewalk I was standing on. He started walking down the sidewalk, walking and walking down the sidewalk, turned the corner and I never saw him again. Hmmm, I am sure he eventually came back, but where did he go and what was he thinking. He had to be thinking something like..."there is just no pleasing that woman, I'll just show her..."

I love nature and I think there is so much out there for us to take in and wonder about. It is overwhelming to think that God made such a variety of living things. It is fun to ponder them and really be awed by them.

It won't take long, I am sure to find another wonderful nature thing to wonder about.

I see it's been way too too long. I have been inspired by one of my little ones to start an interesting series....I have always wanted to comment on the little things around me that fascinate me in such unusual ways. Things that we don't normally notice because we are all too busy to see every little nuance in life. It's all these things in my series that make us truly understand that we are so small in the big scheme of things and that if we don't stop and enjoy, laugh, wonder, and be amazed we will miss out on so much.....

1. Crows and Sonic
I have noticed that the common crow is not a wild animal anymore. I am fascinated to see crows at all the fast food places, parking lots, and anywhere people are eating. These creatures have learned that it is much easier to eat at Sonic than to search the wild for worms and insects. Why they even are able to snitch a forgotten french fry out of the tossed out bag. They are not shy about it either, they will come right up to your window and ask for a handout. Soon they will have little signs that say "will work for food"....don't fall for it!

Next post.....Doves and Nests

Time....

"Procrastination is the thief of time."
-Edward Young, Night Thoughts.

I have a big problem with time. There is too much that you have to decide to do with time...therefore I seem to do not too much with the time I have. With regard to time you have to:

be on it
use it wisely
save it
spend it
watch it
share it
value it

"Time is what we want most, but what we use worst. "
William Penn

Maybe I now know and have learned to value my time and therefore use it much more wisely and do great things with it. Time is a gift and when you receive it you never really know how much of it has been given to you, so it becomes shameful and probably sinful to waste it.

Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it. M. Scott Peck

Changes...

"the more things change, the more they stay the same" - I don't agree with this statement. I find

the more things change the more that more things change

Every time great changes come about in your life - many other parts of your life change. They can't possibly stay the same. That is neither a positive nor a negative statement. It is merely a statement of the obvious (to me). When you were born, big changes took place in your parent's lives. When you graduated and left home for college, many things changed in your lives and in your parent's lives... and so on and so on. Changes such as these are actually good, sometimes hard to adjust to but good. Other changes aren't so good and much harder to adjust to, but we do (eventually). We try hard to adjust to changes in our lives, but we have a tendancy to always look back to the way things were. Thank God for our memory - what would we do without a memory?

Things in your life can, do and will change. Have Faith that the changes in your life come from God's Plan. Look back on your memories before the changes took place....but don't forget to look forward to the rest of the changes to come.

Spring

I love springtime. Today I spotted two birds outside my kitchen window. You know the feeling when you see two birds in spring - tey usually give you that wonderful sense of all is right with the world....Well NOT so this time. Upon checking the trusty Tory Peterson's "Field Guide to the Birds", these two turned out to be European Starlings. As Mr. Peterson says, "a gregarious, garrulous, short-tailed blackbird with a meadowlark shape". They were purle iridescent with yellow pointy bills and red legs. That should have been a sign that they were not your love in the springtime sort of pair.

They were foraging around on the ground when the larger of the two happened upon a great, and I am sure tasty, insect. He had it in his yellow bill when the other bird spotted the prize. Well he just jumped right over there on his red legs to the larger one, body bumped him sending him into a full double body roll thus giving up the delicacy! The smaller one quickly seized the prize and gulped it down.

It wasn't over then there is more... after this episode they continued to forage on the ground. Now mind you they weren't timidly looking around for predators like other birds usually do, they were very hell bent on their mission to find food at all cost. Now their yellow bills were long and pointed and well suited for digging in the dirt. Suddenly while I am staring fascinated with this boldness of the two, the smaller one is tugging furiously with something it has found while digging in the dirt! I don't know what it found, but the larger one came over to help. That was too much for the smaller one (I am thinking they must be siblings) to handle and he pounced on the larger one again! That was the end ...the thing in the ground was lost so they moved on to another area but not before I was thouroughly entertained and refreshed knowing that truely all is right with the world indeed.

Home....

As I am driving home from work at 0130 down hwy 105 I naturally see 5 cars at the new tatoo parlor in BO. One car has a trailer behind it with two jet skis packed securely on it. I guess it is natural to hang out at the tatoo parlor until the sun comes up on PineIsland Bayou so you can jump on your jet ski and test out your new tatoo in the muggy swamp water.

Another sight as I round the corner from Pinewood Blvd onto Pinemont is the inevitable all nighter at the neighbors on the corner of Pinemont and Pinevale Way. A celebration is in order since JohnnyMac is home from the West Coast to celebrate his birthday - PW style.....crawfish, beer, and bonfire!

Of course I have to mention trying to get to work today was a struggle through the obstacle course that is the semi-annual neighborhood garage sale. Success was had by all I am sure judging by the size of the vans, trucks, and lowboys hauling away everyone's treasures.


You gotta love home.

Today is finally the day....

I have always wanted to write things down that are in my head because I've thought it a shame that there is no way for people to know what another person is thinking. I am not a writer by any means, I am not even a reader - so therefore my attempt at blogging will be amateur at best. But bear with me and maybe you will gain insight to something that you were thinking about too.

I chose the pic "it all starts with faith" because lately I have noticed everything really does. With Faith one is able to plow through things with a little more help. I have come to the realization that it is okay to be sad, angry, upset, confused, and disoriented when tragedy happens. It is okay to "not be okay" as someone told me, but when Faith is strong those thoughts and moments of doubt become more tolerable, not always understandable, just tolerable. We can wonder and question God's plan for our lives and the lives of others, BUT we must still keep the Faith that God DOES have a plan. We are too human and earthly to understand or know what the plan is, but as long as we continue to trust in "the plan" we will survive these moments of fear, doubt, and tragic events in our lives. I guess if we understood - we wouldn't be here - right?