This is my New Year present to my family and Facebook friends. It is to relieve them of the looong Facebook entries I post and instead provide them with a place to read my writings about life in the hollow. I will not be blogging on a regular basis, but rather, when something moves me to put my feelings in words. And so it begins....

Life is so dynamic. No matter how hard we try to force it into a state of being that suits us we cannot escape the moments of happenstance that shape what actually happens and how it influences us. With this afternoon came one of those moments. As I was sitting down to eat brunch, just outside the bank of windows behind the kitchen table, in the drab grays, browns and whites of winter appeared a flash of cobalt blue. So out of place, yet so welcome. As my eyes sharpened their focus on the small body on a tree branch ahead of me I discovered even more color than I expected. A rich, rusty red and milky white grounded the blue on the top and back of an Eastern Bluebird. Before I could absorb all of the beauty before me, my attention was distracted by a blue flash to my left, landing on the bluebird feeder on the deck. As my head snapped to the left, the frenzy of motion escalated as not one, not two, but three more bluebirds landed on and around the feeder. They hopped around and over the feeder, peeking in the holes in the end and through the plexiglass sides, exploring and searching for food. Sadly, there was no food inside. I had filled the feeder in the past with high hopes of having bluebirds become regular visitors but instead found that many other creatures took advantage of my offerings. Red-bellied Woodpeckers wisely slipped their bills under the plexiglass sides to raise them just enough to give them access to the food inside. Not what I had in mind but I was glad to have them visit the feeder all the same. Then came the squirrels who chewed the end holes, which had carefully been designed to welcome just bluebirds inside, into large openings which allowed easy access for their scavenging. So with the new alterations to the feeder my filling of the feeder ceased.

But today, as the burst of activity that so captivated my attention warmed my heart, I once again placed an offering of meal worms out for the bluebirds. It was probably in vain as the whole bluebird sighting took place in a period of maybe 2 minutes and then they were gone. It was over so quickly that I almost didn't have time to think about grabbing my camera to try to catch the beauty. The image above was all I could manage once I gathered my composure and acted upon the wave of emotion that washed over me. Just two minutes, but long enough to make an impression that will last a life time. A reminder that life happens when you least expect it and if your heart and mind are not open to receiving it you will miss out on the little things that make life beautiful.