Heartache and Daybreak

Having fallen prey to a scammer (don’t ask) and having escaped fairly lightly (I hope), I was already feeling shaky.  Then came the news from El Paso, and Dayton.

So many broken hearts and bodies.  As we at a distance stand helpless to help, words fly, and accusations erupt.  To process the horrific, we often leap to the end of our pointing finger.  Why?  To get some measure of resolution I reckon.  To truncate our suffering by settling the blame.  I could be wrong about that, and I know it’s not the whole story.  But I know my own ‘bent to blaming.’

So this morning I was aiming my energy toward lovingkindness, working away at my computer on a presentation for tomorrow (stay tuned!) when close behind me there arose such a clatter I sprang from my chair to see what was the matter.  It sounded like something scrabbling behind the washer and dryer.  But no, thank His Endlessness, it was merely an adolescent female cardinal, scratching at the threshold of the back door.  (I know she was a young teen because she’s not wearing lipstick yet.)

What did she want? Clearly, not me!  On seeing me through the glass, she fled for her life.  Which panicked her family under the feeder, and they all went swooping and chittering to the far end of the yard.

-scene of the scratching –

Just another daybreak on Evangeline.  Blessings to all. ‘Strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow.’

Author: Phoebe Dishman

Phoebe H. Dishman was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas. She is a wife, mother, and grandmother. An essayist and poet, she teaches adult Sunday school, compiles a monthly prayer calendar, edits the Big Thicket Association quarterly bulletin, and keeps a keen eye and ear open for birds. View all posts by Phoebe Dishman