Birds in the tree

The birds sitting silently in the tree next door do not look very swift or very warm. Today when I finally placed some seeds in the bird feeder they swiftly made it to the feeder, some hanging on it and some going to the seed on the snow below. But just as quickly they had gone to the bird feeder, in a few seconds, they were back in the tree. They would stay in the tree just a while and than head back to the feeder and the snow below. They repeated this pattern, I imagine, till the seed was gone. In the summer they sit in the tree, chirping, and head for the feeder after I fill it with seed. However, they are not so swift in flying back and forth to the tree. Why not chirp or sing in tree in the winter and why go back and forth so much? One theory I have come up with is that they are too cold to sing for their food in the winter and somehow sitting in the tree is warmer than sitting on the feeder or on the snow.

I find that some of us in the peace and justice movements are

sometimes like the birds in the tree. We are quick to point out acts of aggression or injustices but sometimes after making our splash, we go back to the tree ready to go out again. While at times the ‘powers that be’ are like the squirrels in the summer who get to the bird feeder, in any way they can, scare the birds, and take all the good seeds for themselves. In the winter they have enough stored away so not to wait out the cold hard weather.

Maybe we peacemakers, or doves, can be like swift birds that do not fly away after our splash.

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