Life Will Out

Image of a baby bird from the Web

Last night Mike was mowing the grass & there was a baby bird sitting there. Mike mowed around the bird. This morning, the bird was still there: a baby robin, round like a little ball. I picked it up & put it in an old nest I keep on the front porch. The bird was lively, but had only one eye & a beak that didn't close properly. Some of its pin feathers were missing. I figured it was a goner. I left the bird in the nest on the front porch & soon there were several full-grown robins responding to its tweets. They were shook up. One finally dug a worm & deposited it in the baby bird's wide-open mouth.

I called my neighbor kids & explained the situation. No hope for this bird. Did they want to care for it anyway or should I euthanize the little thing? Katrina, 14, decided to care for it.

An hour later, my friend Sandy called me. She's been struggling for years with 2 different types of cancers & has been laid low recently by one that revisited, & the surgery that followed. She told me she biked to Holy Hill early this morning, through fog. "It's only 20 miles there," she said. "It was a beautiful ride."

The baby bird & my friend made it clear what I should do. I got on my bike, even though it was raining.