roughing it
by Elouise
thin whistle
of white-throated sparrow
hangs in mid-air
The first I’ve heard this December. A sign of cold weather ahead? I’m never sure how to interpret this one-of-a-kind winter song. It’s always thin and high-pitched, and often trails off as though frozen in the air. Nothing like the full-throated winter call of the tiny house wren.
Is the sparrow announcing its presence? Maintaining boundaries? Better, perhaps it’s defying all preconceptions about its stamina, determination, survival instincts and importance in the greater order of this world. Reminding me life is greater and perhaps more precious than human existence inside a pre-heated igloo full of comfort and convenience props.
I love my heated dwelling and all my squirreled-away survival rations. I adore the sound and feel of precious radiator heat on a cold morning. I willingly tolerate the heart-stopping roar of my morning Vitamix machine. It enables me to sit at my kitchen table looking out the window, listening for sounds of outdoor creatures and imbibing my half-digested breakfast. Imagining I’m roughing it.
© Elouise Renich Fraser, 6 December 2017
Photo found at Audubon.com
Telling the Truth 
I think of you and me driving to a commencement, I think it was, and you tolerating my CD of bird calls on the way. What a joy to me to find out that you, too, listened to the same CD! I sit and delight in watching the birds (and the squirrels) feasting in the back yard or bathing in the birdbath. It is calming, peaceful, and life-filled.
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Thanks for this memory! You’re correct–we were on our way to a commencement. It sounds like you’re enjoying yourself and the backyard action! 🙂
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stay warm my friend, I can see you must still be eating healthy, put on the comfy slippers and kick your feet up and just listen to the sounds of the world turning ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ thinking of you, sending love ❤
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Yep. The healthy eating is going to be around for the duration. It’s down in the 30s already. Brrrr.
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In Western Australia, sparrows are considered vermin and if one manages to cross over into WA and is spotted it makes headlines in the papers and everybody is on the lookout to capture and kill the poor little thing.
Sparrows are an introduced species in Australia.
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Oh….that’s so sad 😞. House sparrows aren’t loved around here, unlike their many cousins. But they haven’t reached vermin status yet.
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