I love birds. I love them because they’re so with us – so present. There’s always a chickadee, seagull, crow, sparrow, junco around as you move from home to car, from car to store or work.

I was on a morning walk – which is a good space for meditation and prayer for me – when a spotted towhee shot by. Towhees are common but shy. They flit in and out of the brambles and undergrowth and fly away quickly from sight. This was different behaviour. And that behaviour is because of spring. It’s the season of pursuit in the bird world and it stirs things up! So it inspired a cheeky little poem. And my friend Violet who is my artistic conversation partner this Lent matched it with a glimpse into the dating habits of Mallards — now they can stir up a pond in spring!

Lent is positioned right in the middle of a shift of season when so much is awakening from winter’s rest. The observance of Lent can feel long, but it’s not without its serenades and reminders of what God is doing if we’re willing to look. Birds are reminders for me to wonder what God is up to in my world, to keep looking. What right now is reminding you that God is at work in your world?

The Thrill of the Chase

Something darted into the undergrowth.
A rustle…a tussle and out shot
a messy flurry of feathers, followed
on the tail by another ruddy-romped flurry
not many inches behind.

Spring is near so it’s hard to tell
but it looked like an argument,
(a little ‘heated’ perhaps?)
between two Spotted Towhees.
I’ll never know who won.

It was a short but thrilled chase.
They up-downed, deke-dived, rocket-rolled
through braided blackberry brambles
with such speed, I held my breath –
but they shot through, unscathed.

Exhale. Who said Lent had to be
all solemn and somber?
Doesn’t it chase us back to life,
back to love?

© 2021 Laurel Archer all rights reserved

Title: Double Date
Artist: Violet Nesdoly
Watercolour, pencil crayon, and pen on 140 lb. cold press watercolour paper, 6×9 inches.