The Birds

I just stepped outside my door to pick up the newspaper off of my step and it was like a scene from The Birds (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056869/). But a gentler Disney form of the horror movie.

The trees are all filled with robins! Sweet, gentle little robin red breasts chirping away and flitting about. The rising sun is beaming on them making their rusty red chests just glow in the light. I have never seen so many robins all at once.

For me seeing the first robin at the end of winter is a sign that spring is on the way. And normally that is all I will see. One robin. Then, over the course of a few days I will see a few more, then a few more, etc. But I have never seen such a large flock of them.

So what does this mean? First of all, it is only February 20th. WAY to early for signs of spring. But since we never had a winter, I guess spring feels like it will take over the season and push the lazy winter out of the way. Secondly, since there are so MANY robins out there, maybe this spring will be more intense. But what does a more intense spring look like? More flowers? More warm, soft days? More mud? Well, there can’t be more mud since we don’t really have any snow to melt.

I firmly believe that this non-winter we are experiencing is a sign that global warming has truly taken hold of us. And, as awful as that is to think about (melting polar ice caps, rising seas, extreme weather), if one of the effects is a flock of sweet robins to greet me in the morning, then maybe it isn’t all bad.

Yes, I am an optimist. My glass is not half empty, it is half full. Not only that, but I never wanted more than it to be half full in the first place! In other words, I can see the silver lining in practically any situation and event. And I will appreciate the joy of all those birds on a Monday morning.