Sometimes my internet’s home page leaves me puzzled. What is deemed headlines and important leaves my little heart and mind so confused and often in despair. This morning I quickly closed down the computer and set off for a quiet walk in nature. There, without even bothering to announce his presence with his song, sat a magnificent Magpie. Content with just sitting in less than 30 degrees, the ever present wind, and the awkward stillness of the tree he had chosen. Simply being.

From there another walk through the neighborhood. I laughed with the tall evergreen/pine trees twittering so loud with what must have been a flock of small birds hidden in the branches. I chatted with a raven as he pulled and pulled on a tree’s thin twig only to discover he was standing on the twig. He turned his head and chose another twig on a different branch. Again, he discovered the wind played with him and brushed it away as he grabbed it with his beak. He almost “fell off” his perch. With no agenda other than to be a contented Magpie I walked through the neighborhood and offered blessings to each car that passed. Two elderly gentlemen stood in a yard contemplating a ladder, a saw, and a tree. I smiled and offered success to their venture. I offered good mornings to the dogs that ran to the fence to bark and watched their tails wag vigorously back and forth. I bellowed out loud to see a little dog’s nose and one eye peer through a hole in a wooden fence.  Returning I put out the seed and watched the pigeons circle overhead and the sole raven scout began to caw to the others who flew in for the breakfast buffet.

A different kind of home page and news. But maybe, just maybe, within this tapestry of interconnected Life, a magnificent Magpie and a little hobbit walking, a thread of simple joy has been woven.  And maybe, just maybe, if such a simple musing gifts whoever should read a smile, the thread will grow.