april lawn turkeys

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first warblers

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It’s happening!   They’re here!

Timed with the insect emergence

The first warblers of the spring have arrived.

We see yellow streaks moving about in groups

Foraging busily feeding in the daytime

Gathering energy reserves for the next night flight

Navigating their way to their nesting grounds

Such small birds you only see them if you look closely.

Soft sweet little calls signal their presence

Though you need binoculars to see what’s there

If you can catch some movement to know where to look

If you can focus and get a glimpse before it moves.

This is an identification challenge that takes practice.

This first week before the trees leaf out it’s easier.

Soon the wiggling leaves will obscure our view

And confuse our brains trying to detect movement.

This is the birder’s delight for a few brief weeks:

The chance to see a bird we’ve never seen before

The chance to see something beautiful carrying on

Traveling the same amazing trip once again.

the voice in my head

The voice in my head is me talking to me

Even as a part of me watches what’s happening:

The speaker, the listener and the observer

Combine into the abstraction of myself.

Thinking about thinking about thinking

Thoughts happen almost all the time I am awake

And happen in a way when I am dreaming

Forming symbols and metaphors.

The voice talks on and on caring not

Whether or not I am listening

The meaning understood or not

Whether or not I am watching all this.

This voice sometimes imagines conversations

Talking to the living or talking to the dead

Talking to animals and trees, sky and water.

Others talk to God.  It’s all in your head.

Sometimes making tomorrow’s to do list.

Sometimes reviewing the past.

Sometimes grappling with problems.

Sometimes busy and restless awake in the night.

Meditation brings a pause to the noise.

The wordless flow of images and sounds

Of sensations and scents experienced in silence

For sure happens to any creature with a brain.

Do you know how your brain works?

Being interested in everything going on

Within and without, moment to moment

Being alive being aware being a human being.

branch brook early cherry blossoms

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