For the birds.

I got up the other morning early. Actually, I had been basically unable to sleep most of the night and finally got up for the last time. I made coffee and then took my cup and sat in the dark on my porch. The air was cool and moist from a light shower which fell over night. All those thoughts which had filled my mind over the course of the night and largely prevented me getting restful sleep began to fall away. Suddenly the roar in my ears was replaced with the sound of scores of birds singing the sun into the sky. Dawn was approaching and the birds wasted no time in telling anyone who would stop and listen that a new day was here. A new day~ a new beginning. I sat drinking my coffee and I ate a couple chocolate animal crackers which I grabbed ahold of as I walked by the cupboard on my way out of the kitchen. Maybe not the healthiest way to begin a day but at that moment I did not care. I sat and listened to the birds and watched the sunlight grow and shine on the trees.

I remembered being a little boy and laying in my bed early in the morning. I liked to listen to the birds in the morning and let them sing me awake. I remember the smell of the honeysuckle bush which was outside one of the windows and that sweet scent that filled the room. Warm light would fill the room along with promise of a joyful day. I enjoyed picking out the tune of a particular bird and listening to it sing away. All that activity so early in the morning and still so very peaceful.

In the night the monsters come whispering lies and half truths and filling minds with worries that we are not supposed to have. Night time is also a time sometimes for me when memories that I try to forget sometimes come back. I don't know why then they attack but they do. Sometimes it gets bad--- really bad and I end up going to adoration in the middle of the night. Sometimes I find my way to the couch in the living room and begin to pray a Rosary or something. Many times I can get back to sleep but also there are many times I don't. The next day sometimes is brutal and this goes on for days. I feel at times like it is a storm that I am going through.

That morning as the storm was quieting down and the birds sang I finished the few animal crackers and then picked up my Bible. I turned to one of my favorite passages. I love to pray out loud this passage especially when various storms are tossing me about. I love to pray this passage in the morning and in front of Jesus in adoration. It is the two canticles in Daniel 3. The story about the three young men who go into the furnace and come out unharmed. They sing God's praises as they go into the fire. I don't think the monsters like those canticles and I don't think they like the birds that sing joyfully in the early morning. The memories dissipate and peace comes as birds sing and I get to praise God. There have been times in the middle of the night that a Rosary or chanting scripture does not help as I wanted. I think especially then it is important for me to persevere in praise.

I am so grateful to God for those birds that sang that morning. We have so many gifts around us each day from birds and animal crackers to the people we meet and encounter. Thank you God. amen.