March 10, 1954 - Bird's Song Close At Hand

Something happened yesterday morning that gave my heart and faith new strength. I was in the kitchen with the blinds down when I heard a bird's song close at hand. It was so continuous and strong and joyful that I was compelled to search out its source. Upon raising the blind, I found a female cardinal sitting high in the closest plum tree right at my eye level. I could see her bright scarlet beak move in her song, it's high color charming the bird's paler feathers. But, then, a curious thing occurred. I noticed with amazement that often times the same strong song would continue when her beak was closed. I hopened the window silently so I might poke my head out to better find the perch of her partner or competitor. It took no time to find her mate, throwing his voice at the morning, in the uppermost branches of the bare sycamore, over twice as tall as his wife's plum tree. I could not see his head from my angle - hidden as it was by his promient chest, brilliantly red in the early sun's rays. These two creatures sang a duet to the new day, alternately singing together and then each separately, answering the other in one of the sweetest sounds in all this world. This sight and this sound made me declare again to myself that as long as there are sights & sounds such as this there is much to make one rejoice.