This morning as I was doing my yoga on the porch, I watched Mrs. Mockingbird light on her nest. Then I saw three or four little heads pop up to be fed. I had seen the eggs before, but hadn’t realized they had hatched. It made me smile to see them.
After yoga I went out to pick blueberries off my very prolific bushes. In spite of their abundance, I have to put netting over them to prevent the birds from taking every last berry off all four bushes. We tested it one year and left the netting off one bush. Not a single berry ripened on that exposed bush.
In years past I have been very scrupulous about taking every berry and carefully replacing the netting. But this year, as I picked, I found myself thinking of Mrs. Mockingbird and her hungry babies and I left some berries on the bush. And I left the netting off that bush when I was done so they could easily get what was left.
Later, I thought about this change of heart of mine. Just seeing that mother feeding her babies changed my outlook on letting the birds eat my berries. Maybe if we were all willing to get to take a closer look at our enemies, the world would be a better place.
