As the Martin House slides down the pole, the air fills with a purple cloud, birds swirling above drenching us in liquid warbles and down-slurred whistles.
this is my absolute favorite essay of yours, bill. i lived deep in the woods for 20 years, having very few visuals of the birds that i would hear. last june my house burned down, sadly, and we left our hollow. now i live in an old town and have the tallest tree, a silver maple, in the corner of my yard. it is home to so many birds and i have a wide open swath of sky to watch them and grass as well. it is the very best part of living here. thank you for your words and images and the deep possibility of loosening that which is held tightly, inside all of us. be well!
The scarcity of a full house, trapping us in narrow loneliness. The option to soar in the wide circles of life. Such a beautiful call to step outside into kinship. Thank you. 🙏
I appreciate you walking us through the magnificence of all of this, and connecting the dots between the Martins, the dragonflies, and all of us for the balm and the antidote that those connections contain. Many thanks.
I haven't read such profound commentaries on nature since Annie Dillard's "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek." The dab of humor at the end was just the right touch. Thank you for this.
I am nearing the end of a lively and lovely novel titled Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. I have very much enjoyed welcoming the main character into my thoughts and heart.
The book’s cover is illustrated with a feather. Inside… I was introduced to an invention called “featherwood”.
I will forever be amazed at how words shared with tenderness and love can open wings to the sky.
I recommended your Substack to someone yesterday in the Waking Up community as being full of birds, nature and mindfulness and she came back saying “wow, so many pictures of birds 😅”. I replied that the mindfulness is in the text. You have just shown that brilliantly yet again. Thanks!
Your words, thoughts and pictures today give me rise to take a deep breath in response to the appreciation I feel for you skill in observation, both of nature and of the Self, and of Mercy's wonderful reading voice. Thank you!
Last night we had the opportunity to have dinner with a grandson who has completed his MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and is about to leave to live in LA to work for a big tech company. He spoke of things we wants to do besides work: time on the beach, learning to surf, visiting people he knows, finding places of solitude which bring clarity in times of unknowing. Although 22, he has already learned the importance of solitude and so I don't fear for him as he takes on this huge new challenge, leaving his family on the east coast.
I will send him this link that he can listen to easily (thanks to Mercy) as he drives, for it reinforces things he already has learned and, like many of us, will need to keep re-learning to keep his feet on the ground and his heart knowing that there are options find solitude as simple as looking out the window that is before you.
How wonderful to read about the purple martins! I do not live in the right climate for them, but I have fond memories from vacations on the Outer Banks of NC, where most beach houses seemed to have martin houses. We'd watch them swooping above the deck, twittering and hunting insects.
this is my absolute favorite essay of yours, bill. i lived deep in the woods for 20 years, having very few visuals of the birds that i would hear. last june my house burned down, sadly, and we left our hollow. now i live in an old town and have the tallest tree, a silver maple, in the corner of my yard. it is home to so many birds and i have a wide open swath of sky to watch them and grass as well. it is the very best part of living here. thank you for your words and images and the deep possibility of loosening that which is held tightly, inside all of us. be well!
The scarcity of a full house, trapping us in narrow loneliness. The option to soar in the wide circles of life. Such a beautiful call to step outside into kinship. Thank you. 🙏
Winged weave awesome nests,
bees build combs, spiders craft webs.
Will humans knot net?
I appreciate you walking us through the magnificence of all of this, and connecting the dots between the Martins, the dragonflies, and all of us for the balm and the antidote that those connections contain. Many thanks.
I haven't read such profound commentaries on nature since Annie Dillard's "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek." The dab of humor at the end was just the right touch. Thank you for this.
I am nearing the end of a lively and lovely novel titled Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. I have very much enjoyed welcoming the main character into my thoughts and heart.
The book’s cover is illustrated with a feather. Inside… I was introduced to an invention called “featherwood”.
I will forever be amazed at how words shared with tenderness and love can open wings to the sky.
I recommended your Substack to someone yesterday in the Waking Up community as being full of birds, nature and mindfulness and she came back saying “wow, so many pictures of birds 😅”. I replied that the mindfulness is in the text. You have just shown that brilliantly yet again. Thanks!
another brilliant essay, Bill.
Your writings are like a meditation, thank you 🙏.
Your words, thoughts and pictures today give me rise to take a deep breath in response to the appreciation I feel for you skill in observation, both of nature and of the Self, and of Mercy's wonderful reading voice. Thank you!
Last night we had the opportunity to have dinner with a grandson who has completed his MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and is about to leave to live in LA to work for a big tech company. He spoke of things we wants to do besides work: time on the beach, learning to surf, visiting people he knows, finding places of solitude which bring clarity in times of unknowing. Although 22, he has already learned the importance of solitude and so I don't fear for him as he takes on this huge new challenge, leaving his family on the east coast.
I will send him this link that he can listen to easily (thanks to Mercy) as he drives, for it reinforces things he already has learned and, like many of us, will need to keep re-learning to keep his feet on the ground and his heart knowing that there are options find solitude as simple as looking out the window that is before you.
Many thanks, for sharing such powerful wisdom.
Wonderful essay. Thanks.
How wonderful to read about the purple martins! I do not live in the right climate for them, but I have fond memories from vacations on the Outer Banks of NC, where most beach houses seemed to have martin houses. We'd watch them swooping above the deck, twittering and hunting insects.
“the small dark room of the self” - so true.
Beautiful essay to start the day off right, thanks!
What a gift! Thank you!
Thank you for crafting a deep, thoughtful and uplifting essay