Symphony of the Sky Dwellers

This morning was the first morning that I was able to sit out on my newly “unwrapped” back porch and listen to the "Symphony of the Sky Dwellers". They were Magnificent, with untold numbers of various types of birds joining in the song.

The last two years I have spent living in apartments after the breakup of my second marriage. The apartment I lived in last year was in the city, surrounded by pavement and concrete, there were no trees nearby and though it was a nice apartment, it still was the kind of place that starves the soul of a person like myself. The year before I lived above the bar we owned, in a barely habitable apartment I affectionately call “The Crack House” due to all the cracks and holes in the plaster walls. It also boasted a lath board ceiling that I eventually covered up with Styrofoam insulation sheets, which made it look a little better. I do miss the bat that inhabited the place with me. It was a very large apartment with 13-foot high ceilings, and the “pet” bat I named “Waldo” would come out in the evenings and swoop all around the apartment (good times!?!).

Last year my ex asked me if I would be interested in taking over “our” house, as she could no longer make the house payments. She and her girlfriend had rented a house near the bar, which was about forty minutes from the house, it’s hard to drive that far in the winter here, and the house had been left empty for nearly a year. Though the house was larger than I needed and had a larger house payment than I needed, I took it over mostly so I could have that back porch again.

I purposefully get up much earlier than I have to just so I can sit out there and listen to the beautiful “music” our friendly sky dwellers make. This morning one “blackbird” of note landed on the railing of the deck surrounding the pool, she then dove down to the ground and snatched up a stick with a leaf on it and returned with it to the railing. Examining the stick she threw it to the ground and let out a chirp, which I took to mean “that won’t do for my nest”. She then flew back to the ground, picked up another stick and returned to the railing. Seeing that this stick was much better, (I agreed with her), she flew off in great haste, returning to her nest with the treasure she had found.

Some would say I had wasted two hours this morning just drinking coffee and listening to birds sing, but I can’t really say there is anything I enjoy doing more. Some people “stop and smell the roses”, I “stop and listen to the sky dwellers”, and some people never stop at all. Sing on my friends…