Green Song

**Bang**! A loud bang on the kitchen window pushed my heart into my throat. I knew immediately what it was. I ran outside in my pajamas and around to the side of the house. Searching frantically, I found him in the grass, a little green bird. I lifted him gently, one hand carefully over the other, trapping him so he wouldn't fall if he started struggling, but he didn't move. I knew most bird strikes caused death but I've always wondered if the deaths were from a predator getting them while they were standing or from the crash.

I carried him back around the corner, mincing my way through the fallen leaves with my bare feet. After sitting on the stairs, I carefully open my hands to see how he was doing. His eyes were open as was his beak. He was panting hard. I gently touched him on the head and he blinked. I was relieved. I found myself transfixed as we stared into each other’s eyes. His breathing slowly relaxed and he began to balance upright in my hand. I was delighted to find a bottle of water still sitting on the deck from the previous day’s gardening effort. I poured a bit of water into the cap of the bottle and offered it to my little green friend. He ignored it first but then I dipped his beak slightly into the water and he drank! He looked from the water to me and back again. Pausing each time to give me a long slow blink.
We sat that way for almost 30 minutes and then he blinked quickly a few times, and flu away. And, AHA! From out of nowhere one of our cats gave chase. My little green friend made a clean escape.

One week later, I'm out picking up pecans and I see a streak of green flash by. It’s a little green bird. He lands on a branch nearby. He's looking right at me! He slowly blinks two prolonged blinks, chirps a beautiful tri-tone song for a moment, blinks slowly one more time and flies away.

I suppose there must be a moral to the story. If there is then it must be that there are predators in the world that will try to kill the songs in your life, but all it takes is a little kindness and the music is flying again.