Circle of Life

Just last week, I basked in happiness as I watched a female cardinal take a bath in our sprinkler the first day that I watered our newly seeded patches of lawn. She fluffed and preened and shook and was just so enjoying herself from atop our fence in the spray of water that my heart was overfilled with happiness and gratitude.

This morning we came back from temple to a dead baby bird in our driveway. She was perfectly intact and it must have just happened because there were no bugs around her and they just started coming in the time it took us to dig a hole for her burial. She was on her back with her head back, as if she had fallen and her neck had broken. She looked too little to be out of her nest, and I didn't see the nest anywhere. She was so beautiful, every tiny perfect detail of her, and I scooped her onto my trowel and buried her beneath a hedge.

Then I took advantage of the sun between two major rain showers (one of which had made gorgeous music on the roof of the sanctuary) to transfer my seedlings from their cups to the ground. I still felt so sad about the bird, but had to transfer that energy into nurturing new life, life that will help sustain us.

There was too much nature happening in my own backyard today. Beautiful and sad and overwhelming.

Being such an emotional person feels like a curse almost as often as it feels like a gift.