We’re past harvest, so now I invite you to think beyond to where we are in this time and place. Not just with Christmas trees in many of the stores, or ads about presents to give. Consider what difference you can make either to others around you, or in your treatment of nature.

One of my interests is nature.

There’s a folk tale about a bird with a broken wing who stays behind when the other birds have flown south. The small bird looks for a safe place to spend the cold winter months until his wing heals. He does eventually find a tree willing to host him and feed him from the seeds hanging in that tree. It’s a story I like to tell in oral storytelling.

Recently I went to Wild Birds Unlimited in Kitchener and saw the array of feeders and seeds to feed some of the smallest creatures of our natural world. Small though they are, many birds were created with the instinct to fly thousands of miles to a warmer climate before winter sets in. It asks for my consideration for them, and the birds that stay around for the winter.

We have a feeding station in our backyard, far enough from the house and other buildings that squirrels cannot get at; it’s just for the birds.

Birds are not concerned with how they look; they’re already wonderfully made. Remember the story of Solomon, in all his glory. The passage in Matthew 6 addresses first the lilies of the field, then also the birds:

26  “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

Think on that for a moment in our natural world. Maybe there’s something you can do. Can you help to feed the birds that stay? Can you provide food in season when they are here in Ontario? Search and find resources to help make a difference.

The birds may not thank you like others do, but they might just sing for you in your backyard or show off their colours on a dull fall or winter day. That’s thanks enough for me.

Red-bellied woodpecker at our feeder