Walking Continues

May we learn to return And rest in the beauty Of animal being, Learn to lean low, Leave our locked minds, And with freed senses Feel the earth Breathing with us. May we enter Into lightness of spirit, And slip frequently into The feel of the wild. John O'Donohue, from  To Learn From Animal Being Our good morning started with happy thoughts for the birds to show-up. I find such peace during most of my visits to the ponds as the turtles sun and the birds swim, fish, hunt, and fly. I suppose participating in the "census taking" of the Christmas Bird Count* is a small part of my payback for the joy and peace. Surely keeping track will benefit the birds in the long run. DH and I began participating in Christmas Bird Counts in 2015 or 2016 and I have continued them when possible - mostly by monitoring the ponds a few miles from the house. [That started when a broken ankle threatened to sideline me - and I was assigned to stake-out the ponds.] I've loved the count even as I