Monday 14 December
Work days start very dark at the moment. The bright, warm spring and summer sunshine is a distant memory or a destination far off in front of us. It depends what my perspective and mood is each day.
This morning, after a strong coffee and other rituals, I crunched across the chippings on the driveway to the car. As I unlocked it from a few feet away the indicators and headlights flashed so brightly that it made everything else around disappear.
The robotic whir of the wing mirrors unfolding finished at exactly the same moment that my footsteps did. And as I reached for the door handle, I stopped. Still. For a few seconds. I held my breath. Stood statue-like. And I listened to the beautiful, understated dawn chorus of the winter morning twilight. A robin was taking the lead and some fieldfare were providing the backing vocals. It was sublime.
I have really neglected my meditation of late, and must get back on to it. It gives me some calm focus time, some peace and space to just be. That few seconds this morning holding the cold, wet car door handle, waiting for my eyes to readjust to the darkness was a timely moment of calm.
Then, in the car with a smile on my face, driving with full headlamps on down and around the lanes. And, what I initially thought were autumn leaves, blowing across from hedgerow to opposite hedgerow, turned out to be small birds. Finally, as I approach the small railway bridge something lifts from the ground and flaps away to my left. It struggled to get off the ground and was much bigger than the others. A flash of white to its broad underwings or body or both. I couldn’t see exactly what it was, and as frustrating as that was on one hand, on the other, the mystery was tantalising.
I struggle with Monday mornings, and they have been particularly challenging of late, but once again nature came to my aid. Just when I needed it most. It couldn’t do a spectacular display in the darkness, which was dim at best, but it was enough. Was I looking for it, or did it find me?
The Bald Birder 