We sure are enjoying all the birds at our new home. Thankfully, we no longer struggle with the cardinal pecking loudly on our windows all day long. (If you missed Fighting
Illusions and Enemy Number One, click here.) He and a bunch of his friends finally accepted our peace offering of bird seed. We've since expanded to two bird feeders and they eat out of both.
We're also feeding three hummingbirds regularly from a feeder hanging on our front porch. We have Zoom, a ruby-throated male, Zing, a female who's slightly bigger than Zoom, and Zip, a smaller female. (I didn't name them and still can't always tell who's who, especially when
there's only one of them present.) They drink all day, no wonder they're always buzzing!
Next, we wanted to introduce access to water. Because of our cats, we can't put a bird bath on the ground. Instead, we've put up two
copper hanging baths, a small one for the hummingbirds at the porch, and a larger one with a fountain hangs in a tree for everyone else. It's a bit premature to judge, but so far, no one's taking a bath yet, or even landing on the edge to curiously inspect the new shiny objects.
Today, I adjusted the spray of the fountain to make it smaller and less intimidating. I added rocks to create some familiarity and more places to perch without getting wet. Now they just have to trust the birdbath is a friendly gift that's safe to enjoy.
Hmmm... What "gifts" have you and I been offered lately that we've not yet chosen to trust and explore, much less enjoy? What a great question to sit with. I invite you to take a few minutes and see what comes up. I did, and thought of a few things.
We have several neighbors that we've known in advance casually through a facebook group for our private residential community. We've also met them in person at our annual POA meetings, and this year, at a Fourth of July party.
There's one couple in particular that we really seem to connect with, but we haven't initiated anything with them socially. Just yesterday, they helped us move something and we found ourselves thinking once again that we should hang out, but we didn't say anything.
Afterward, I thanked them again by text and told them we feel like they are "our speed," and it would be nice to get together sometime. They agreed! How convenient is that, new friends right here in the woods? We just had to test the waters and now we'll see where that goes.
Another gift opportunity: a surveyor showed up "next door" to an adjacent property, several days in a row last week. We know that tract is on the market and have confirmed there's a contract on it.
Can I trust that the new neighbors will be a gift? Can I suspend any worries or fears that we will not like them and they will annoy us somehow? Could I consider they also might be great friends and true neighbors, always there to help and lend a hand? I will
embrace that hope, because it sure feels better than seeing this news as a negative.
What about you? Did you think of anything? Let's keep looking around for new things in our environments that could be potential gifts
waiting for us to explore and enjoy. Let's trust the "bird bath" and dive in!
