Yesterday morning, instead of my usual meditation with candle and altar, I decided to do a walking meditation.  And I needed it.  Since Andy and I moved back to this beautiful mountain ridge in the Shenandoah Valley two months ago, I have been so focused on unpacking and trying to make the place look good that I have not felt deeply connected with what it was that brought us back here–nature.

     So my outdoor meditation was a time to just be in the beauty that always nourishes me–not taking a walk, not clearing out dead branches, not carrying up firewood–but just being.

     And I was richly rewarded.  As I stood in the driveway and looked into the brush, I soon began to notice some quiet movement.  A little bird, and then another, and another, were hopping, pausing, fluttering their wings softly. 

     I looked more closely and realized that these little birds were juncoes!  Grey from the top of their head to the middle of their breast,  they are white below, with a yellow beak.  Remembering that they winter in our area, I was surprised to see them here so soon.  Had they already moved in for the winter?

     Well, I’ll be ready for them!  A great pleasure I had, living here before, was watching the juncoes do their characteristic little dance, a dance that seems to be, for them, part of eating.  I would put some birdseed on a plate on the balcony outside our bedroom.  The juncoes, who eat off the ground, would eat some seed from the plate, then jump forward and back, eat some more, jump forward and back again, eat and jump, etc.  It’s a delight to watch!   

     So I’ll be buying some bird seed in the next few days.  I’ll put some on a plate on the balcony and hope that the little guys show up.  I can’t wait!–April Moore

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 7:54 am and is filed under Celebrating our beautiful Earth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.