Awake and Alive

The birdbaths have thawed, and are reflecting the surrounding trees and blue sky overhead. From time to time, visitors arrive to dance on their rims and partake of their rippling waters. In between, they chase each other through the brambles and still-to-be-recycled piles of storm debris, which no doubt isn’t debris to them, but just one more temporary, inevitable consequence of being awake and alive. Without the piles, they carry on all the same — just as they did here in 2021, after the big ice-storm. Branches were down everywhere, but the squirrels and birds jumped on them, over them, under them, and through them. The debris was part of their playground, as is the whole wide world, as long as it remains habitable for squirrels, birds, and children.

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