the healing touch of nature

This morning I held a little Zebra finch in my hands (see picture of my finch). It was warm and soft like the smoothest new born skin, gentle and still and all alive. Somehow the physical connection with that little creature has calmed my day.

I was cleaning the cage of our two little squacking Zebra finches who cuddle up together like an old married pair (I hear that they are fast and furious breeders so I am waiting to see if anything happens) and chat back and forth like a Gregorian chant. Last time I cleaned their cage I did so outside ... and alas, one of the pair escaped. I was a little chagrined but have to be honest and say that my real self was cheering it on - well done little fellow! Go fly the skies - no bird should be caged all its life. Even by me.

That small debacle resulted in a short chastisement from my other half and the purchase of a replacement finch. Ah if all of life could be resolved so easily.

Today I cleaned their mess in our enclosed back porch. Again one escaped. (Honestly, I don't even know how.) But you see my brilliance here, don't you? I let it have its wing for a while and then calmly caught it in both hands and surrendered it back into the small white square universe ... which I did fill with twigs and and leaves of butterfly bushes and strawberries from my dwindling patch - just to give them something interesting to do.

But in all that, I had the moment of touch - a gentle little creature that had to trust my big clumsy hands and simply by its aliveness I was made to smile and feel very good.

I think I might let them out for little flights every so often on a cool evening. In the back porch of course. When my other half is out. No bird should be kept in a cage all its life - even by me.

p.s. This is, sadly, how I killed several of my kid's hamsters. Taking them for walks because of course, no hamster should be kept in a cage all its life, even by my kid.