A Bird in the House

If a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, how much is a bird in the house worth?

Maybe an analysis of the life you have chosen.

I came home several weeks ago to a morning dove perched on my floor lamp. 

She flew around the ceiling a bit, then landed again. 

I opened the window wide in case she wanted to get out. She didn't seem in a hurry. She nestled down in the fixture of the overhead light.

And since I'd had a long day, and she seemed fine, I took a nap in the bed underneath. 

When I woke up she had moved to the corner where I have a branch positioned to hold the vine of a Pothos plant.

She looked like she belonged...and it was chilly outside, so I left her alone.

Finally, after a couple hours, she flew out the window. Which I promptly shut because it was now freezing in my home.

Over the following weeks, the mourning dove would peak through the closed glass window. Nestle in the empty flower pots outside the window and eat our bird feed.

I was torn about what to do for her. Sure I put out food and water for her, but should I also buy her a bird house?  Or, did she want to come back inside and live in our home? 

It was a bit tormenting, because I believe that birds should be free to fly. That short lives in freedom are better than long lives in captivity. 

But I could also see with her constant peaking in the window that maybe she would prefer a long life in warmth complete with food and water.

The mourning dove hasn't been around for a week. Maybe she found a warmer place to live or someone took her in...or maybe she found a partner and flew South. 

Wherever she is...I send her my best.

And I wonder if given a choice of being out in the freezing cold where food and water are hard to find, what would I do? Would I give up my freedom? Would I start going along with what other people have to say just to make sure I got a meal?

It's easy to judge others when our bellies are full, our houses are warm, we have running water...but maybe the people we find in the streets and the shelters, just lost their way. Like the mourning dove, maybe they don't have anyone to count on when the chips are down.

I'm lucky, I have a big family. So whenever I start to worry about what would happen to me should I lose my job, my home, my savings, all things that have happened to many people in the last years...I take solace in knowing that my sister Jennifer will take me in. Oh sure, other friends and family would take me in...but my sister Jennifer would be happy about it. : )  And I do love her for the peace of mind she has given me.

That is what I wish for all living things. Peace of mind...to know that if everything goes wrong there is at least one place you can go where they will be happy to take you in.

Who would be happy to take you in?

Who would you be happy to take in?

My Creative Motivation is Home Baked!

It's been far too long since I baked or blogged.

Today, fresh cookies are on the table and here I am back at the computer.

I find it funny and interesting that my ability to produce new creative work is so closely linked to being able to walk back and forth to the kitchen table for regular home-baked sustenance.

Truly, I thought 'cookies and creating' was a game I played with myself, until yesterday.

After a several month absence from the oven and from any new creative work, I felt a strong urge to write and illustrate as I watched warm cookies pile up.

Thank Goodness! It's fall and the projects due are stacking up on my 'plate' just as the cookies did. : )

Work is delicious!

A View from Bear Mountain

A View from the Top

Last week, we hiked all around Bear Mountain. The views were incredible, whether from the top of the mountain, or walking around the lake, or down a stream. 

When I'm in these locations, I always wonder why it's so hard for me to tear myself away from my work. 

I think most of us get so caught up in what we think we are supposed to be doing, that we lose sight of what would actually give our life a nice boost.

Taking a day trip to Bear Mountain was a nice break for my brain. It was a wonderful time with my family. It refreshed me. I returned to my life and work the next day with renewed energy and a fresh perspective. 

I think I need to go back to Bear Mountain. ; )

Nature Finds a Way

This Flower Grew where the Base of
Building Meets the  Sidewalk

Examples of nature finding a way, like this flower, always affirm for me that there is a strong will in living things to survive and succeed in life.

Sometimes, as humans, we forget that we have this strong survival instinct ourselves.

However, just a quick recollection of your own history will remind you that even in the worst of times, you managed to get up, find food, and make it through the day. Yes, you may not have wanted to, but as a living thing you were programmed for survival and you have incredible inner strength.

From early childhood, every time I saw something green  growing up through the cracks of a sidewalk, I felt hope. I realized that as much as man built over nature, nature was going to find its way to live. And if nature could find its way in the unfriendly environment that was cement, I could surely survive in a harsh world myself. 


This flower is an amazing symbol of hope. It not only grew from an impossible location, where a crack at the base of a building meets the sidewalk, but even more incredible...the hundreds of people walking by it every day allowed it to grow and thrive. 

There is much good in this harsh world.

Remembering Past Summer Days

 

Originally Published in 1953

While at my local New York Public Library researching lions, turtles, and spiders for future Story Clubhouse episodes, I spied this gem of a book, "On a Summer Day."

Lois Lenski is a favorite of my dear friend, author / illustrator Lizzy Rockwell. And I'd never seen this book before.

So, I piled "On a Summer Day" on top of my 'science' books and headed for a table. I confess I read it first. I was so blown away by the words and scenes inside. Kids playing like real kids played, like my sister and brother and I did as children....pretending to chew on hay...actually doing it sometimes, acting like dogs, being wheel 

Playing "Horsey"

barrows and so many other things that kids used to do when our entire summer days from morning to sun down were spent playing outside. Free from shoes, parents, and any expectation that our clothes would be clean or undamaged at the end of the day.

I'm sure there are children somewhere who still spend their days outside, but I don't know any.

Honestly, at the time, I would have liked to have been in air-conditioning on hot Kansas summer days, watching television, but that wasn't the life back then. We were out playing restaurant, serving soup to my brother made from grass and mud puddle water, collecting rocks for our rock store, jumping off the barn into soft grass, climbing up into a tall 

Playing Dog

tree and watching people come and go from my father's veterinary clinic, digging a swimming pool, using and losing the household spoons in the process....the list goes on and on.

To this day the three of us can claim to never being bored. I wonder if it's because during our early years we learned that we were the masters of our days and could have them be anything we wanted.

Here's wishing everyone, young, middle, and old, the gift of playing freely and making your days anything you want them to be.

Sunflower Growing in NYC

Sunflower Growing in NYC

As a transplanted Kansan now thriving in New York City, I was quite happy to see this sunflower boldly doing the same thing in my Upper West Side neighborhood.

The sunflower is the state flower of Kansas. As a born and raised Kansan, I was proud to see our state flower taking root in some pretty harsh ground at the side of a parking lot. It's weaved its way out of the metal fence where the flower is now blooming freely in the open.

I love how nature finds a way.

Polly Dunbar Talks About Creating Books

This great interview was forwarded to me by Mark Mitchell, Childrens Book Illustrator.

Polly Dunbar discusses something important that we all need to remember...most books aren't created and completed overnight, they are a project that evolves over years.