for caroline

I was sitting at the dining room table the other day, when I heard a racket outside the window. When I pulled back the blind, I saw a young bird-- adult feathers still coming in--sitting on the sill. Obviously a little freaked out, it had been learning to use it's wings and had barely made it to its new perch. It was breathing hard, slightly panicked, and after a second, it starting calling out. Cry after cry, looking around this way and that. I felt awful for it, it seemed like it was asking for mom, or anybody, but there was nobody to be found. After a while, it stopped crying, mustered up the courage and took off. Only a short distance, but it made it to a low lying tree limb. I almost gave a little cheer. Most creatures have to learn to walk, but if they stumble, they only have the distance between their head and feet to fall. But birds...wow. To jump from your safe, warm nest, into the world, relying on wings you have never tested before in your life.