The year’s at the spring and day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven; the hillside’s dew-pearled;
The lark’s on the wing; the snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in His heaven – all’s right with the world!
~Robert Browning

My backyard habitat has no larks, at least none that I know of, but it does sustain quite a few mockingbirds, woodpeckers, cardinals, robins, doves, sparrows and wrens.  Some of my birds overwinter here, but the others only begin to show up as spring draws near.  It is then, as the numbers increase and nests are being built, that Browning’s poem comes back to play in the foreground of my memory.  I’ve always been taken with the striking imagery in his poem and find it fascinating that in less than 50 words he not only painted a portrait of the quintessential spring day but he also acknowledged where God is and what that means for Creation.

While watching my feathered companions go about their busyness I often like to give life to Browning’s verse, but when I do, I have to be careful not to utter the words above the faintest of whispers.  In order to keep from being seen as well, I have to remain hidden under the massive leafiness of the rose-covered arch over my back porch.  Because it has always been harder to lure the cardinals in close enough for good snapshots, I recently bought a feeder designed especially for them, placed it closer to my porch, and filled it with what the experts said would entice them to come.  Naturally I was thrilled when on the first day I saw not only one but two males and their mates eyeing the new feeder.  Being the wary creatures they are, however, before dining they perched in nearby trees and waited to see if there were any lurking predators or pesky photographers around.  Shhhhh!!!  Here they are again!

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?. . .”  ~Matthew 6:25-26