 |
| Blackbirds fill the sky at Lake Anna State Park, Virginia |
On Wednesday I will be turning 53 years old.
Although I have not spent the better part of my life out-of-doors, this poem arrived in a Writer's Almanac newsletter last week and was just what I needed to hear.
Blackbirds
by Julie Cadwallader Staub
I am 52 years old, and have spent
truly the better part
of my life out-of-doors
but yesterday I heard a new sound above my head
a rustling, ruffling quietness in the spring air
and when I turned my face upward
I saw a flock of blackbirds
rounding a curve I didn’t know was there
and the sound was simply all those wings,
all those feathers against air, against gravity
and such a beautiful winning:
the whole flock taking a long, wide turn
as if of one body and one mind.
How do they do that?
