The Thing with Feathers

What Lent Said to Me Today

"When the words we already have fail us, we have no choice but to go back to the territory, back to the living world itself, and listen—really listen—for the call of what is beautiful...." Ellie Robins at https://substack.com/home/post/p-123686214

Late this morning I read, then commented on, Ellie’s Substack post “Have you been lost for words lately, too?” I then went for my daily workday midday walk — always the same route, more or less, and always different: the seen, the heard, the smelled; the thoughts and feelings brought, the thoughts and feelings found along the way. For a third of today’s ramble, this wee one sang to me. Took me a while to find his/her perch. And when I (and my camera) did, he/she, though seeming suddenly a little shy, stayed and continued his/her stress-melting serenade.

In a month and more the woods will be filled with layer upon layer of birdsong in dozens of languages. Some days Substack feels like that. Today, one song with words and one song without were enough.