This was originally posted on http://www.yetthereismethod.net/
The simplest things bring joy to my heart, and lately it’s been birds. Birds.
I’ve never been an avid birder. I can, perhaps, recognize and name more than most folks, but for the most part only by sight. Real birders, in my mind, know them by their calls, their flight patterns, and their behaviors. Me, though? I just like birds.
Here in north Alabama, my wife and I live in a modest home in a small subdivision (someone years ago used to own a small cotton field, I suppose) that’s “out in the country.” We’re within a few miles of civilization, but only because it’s come out to us in the past decade. The porch on our house has been home to a number of birds over the years, but the nests have almost always ended in disaster. In the bird world, house finch versus grackle or starling rarely ends well for the finch.
For the past few years, though, we’ve had guests that bring a smile to my face every time I see them. We’ve got a pair of wrens. I don’t know if they’re together, though they occasionally roost as if they are. They come as the last bit of light is fading from the sky, and leave just before dawn. They aren’t here to nest; they just spend the night, apparently feeling safe from whatever dangers a wren faces in the wild. Roosting in the corner, perched on the aluminum trim of our siding, they’re tucked just out of sight from the yard. Occasionally we’ll inadvertently frighten them away, but for the most part they’re comfortable with our infrequent comings and goings. They’re comfortable with us, and we find joy with them.
Wrens. Simple joys in a not-so-simple world.
Yet There is Method 