The image of you and a baby goldfinch watching YouTube together so she can connect with the sounds of her family tree … gives me hope for social media.
There was a period of time where I was really anxious that she wasn't going to learn how to 'peck' her food, so we were trying to suggest pecking with our fingers, David thought about making a model goldfinch or finger puppet, but we were worried it would scare her, and then we tried YouTube. Eventually, of course, she just figured it out herself. The Goldfinches singing definitely got her attention, though, and thankfully we have a bunch of the real thing positioned in the Ash trees outside. I swear that my ear is now so attuned to the Goldfinch call that I can hear if they're within a mile radius!
Reverence and terror, both such necessary bedfellows. I feel their meeting in your words, always script drawn directly from that beautiful heart of yours. Thank you for your most precious observations and attention, you make me so very happy.
We were a group of 4 best friends around 8 years old. Friends since before time, we all loved animals and Elton John, ice cream and fries. We found a baby pigeon who our folks let us keep, my Dad, raised in Europe on a farm built a box, taught us to feed her. Now we were a gang of five. Babe did everything we did, rocked out in the basement, learned to eat with an eye dropper, then chopsticks then real stuff pigeons ate! She started her flight lessons around the pool table watching us play and dance, she walked around on the floor with the rabbit. Then a funny thing happened. Other pigeons started hanging out in the backyard, making cooing noises. Babe would look out the window and cock her head and answer back. Two days before school started in the Fall my Dad had the talk with us about nature and Babe wanting to be with her family. My friends were ok, excited about school and next stages.
I. Was. Shattered.
Sixty Four years later I can still feel how my heart felt the day my Dad and I released her, watching her spread her wings in joy to join the others. Yes, to love even a short time and lose something is better than not. I went on to become a Veterinary Nurse and still remember that summer of Babe.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your post today🩷🩷🩷
Such a beautiful reflection and so deftly balanced between love and loss Chloe. You walk that path with such grace and wisdom. I love knowing the Goldfinches are gathering in preparation for her return. My heart is bursting 🐦⬛♥️
Very beautiful. I love your description of the divine symmetry of her wings and feathers and how saving a baby bird turns into an opportunity to learn anew about love. It made me wonder, since energy connection needs no proximity, perhaps, when she returns to the wild, you can fill your heart with your love for her and she will feel it. And, I reckon, she will offer a love transmission of her own in return.
Sarah, thank you so much for reading, and for your beautiful suggestion. I struggle to imagine a time in the future where my heart won't be bursting with love for this tiny bird. The thought that she will still feel it, out in the wild, is special tonic.
Aww, Sparkle - look at her peep through your glasses! She's not a pet, of course - but I do get a similar feeling sometimes with Bubba, knowing when we adopted him that he has no more than 10-15 years to experience the wholeness of life and that we will probably outlive him. We must seem like strange ageless beings to them...
Oh, dear sweet Bubba! Yes, I hadn't thought of that, we probably seem to be functioning more on geological time to these little guys. It's funny, with Sparks, I was deliberately a bit guarded at the beginning (Goldfinches are notorious for not making it) but after a while the guardedness was actually exhausting, so I just had to stop and let myself fall fully in love with her. I so wish I could get a glimpse of what Bubba's perception of time is like...
I like to think of him as a little Buddha, forever basking in the Eternal Now of Daddy's Love. 😍 I was going to say how difficult it must be not to snuggle with a bird, but the peeping through your glasses was wildly adorable and intimate. ❤️
"the Eternal Now of Daddy's Love" 😭💜 these wise fur and feather children of ours... And Sparkle definitely has her little version of snuggles. She sticks to me like glue after she's had a bath. I wonder if it's because she instinctively knows she's a bit vulnerable then... I'll take her over to the window to let the sun warm her up while she's drying off, but she always falls asleep, so I spend the next hour going, "Sparkle! Wake up! Shake your feathers!" 🤭
We choose this heartbreak when we love, we know they will leave us or we them, in the end. But perhaps, in living and loving and letting go, we gift a tiny part of our souls that they take with them, and they gift us a tiny part of their soul in return, and we are better for it. Because, after all, perhaps, more love is the answer to everything…. Truly beautiful Chloe. Thank you for this gift 💛
Emily, thank you for this gift 💛 it'll be the greatest honour if she takes a tiny part of my soul with her, when it's time. And you're right, I think that the appropriate time for more love is, and always will be, now. Thank you, thank you 💛
ah Chloe, you share so tenderly the gifts and risks (grief) when we offer our hearts to the world…grief wedded with joy. thank you for bringing Sparkle and sparkle into our day. 💫✨
I love the photo of you and your little friend, Chloe. I'm sorry you been struggling. We've missed you, but totally understand the need to go underground from time to time.
‘less love has never been the answer to anything‘ ❤️ I needed to hear that today. Thank you, beautiful Chloe x
Yes, that caught my attention today too.
me, too
Me four
Love, and only ever more love, to you, dear Tor 💗
The image of you and a baby goldfinch watching YouTube together so she can connect with the sounds of her family tree … gives me hope for social media.
There was a period of time where I was really anxious that she wasn't going to learn how to 'peck' her food, so we were trying to suggest pecking with our fingers, David thought about making a model goldfinch or finger puppet, but we were worried it would scare her, and then we tried YouTube. Eventually, of course, she just figured it out herself. The Goldfinches singing definitely got her attention, though, and thankfully we have a bunch of the real thing positioned in the Ash trees outside. I swear that my ear is now so attuned to the Goldfinch call that I can hear if they're within a mile radius!
Reverence and terror, both such necessary bedfellows. I feel their meeting in your words, always script drawn directly from that beautiful heart of yours. Thank you for your most precious observations and attention, you make me so very happy.
And that makes me so very happy 💗
“On Being a Parent”
I did wonder...
We were a group of 4 best friends around 8 years old. Friends since before time, we all loved animals and Elton John, ice cream and fries. We found a baby pigeon who our folks let us keep, my Dad, raised in Europe on a farm built a box, taught us to feed her. Now we were a gang of five. Babe did everything we did, rocked out in the basement, learned to eat with an eye dropper, then chopsticks then real stuff pigeons ate! She started her flight lessons around the pool table watching us play and dance, she walked around on the floor with the rabbit. Then a funny thing happened. Other pigeons started hanging out in the backyard, making cooing noises. Babe would look out the window and cock her head and answer back. Two days before school started in the Fall my Dad had the talk with us about nature and Babe wanting to be with her family. My friends were ok, excited about school and next stages.
I. Was. Shattered.
Sixty Four years later I can still feel how my heart felt the day my Dad and I released her, watching her spread her wings in joy to join the others. Yes, to love even a short time and lose something is better than not. I went on to become a Veterinary Nurse and still remember that summer of Babe.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your post today🩷🩷🩷
Sigh…. Thank you so much for sharing these memories. 💕💕🕊️
Vickie, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for sharing about Babe. These interweaving stories are so powerful. The connections so, so real 💗
Such a beautiful reflection and so deftly balanced between love and loss Chloe. You walk that path with such grace and wisdom. I love knowing the Goldfinches are gathering in preparation for her return. My heart is bursting 🐦⬛♥️
Gosh, mine too. It's soothed so much anxiety, knowing that she'll go from one embrace to another ♥️🪶
Very beautiful. I love your description of the divine symmetry of her wings and feathers and how saving a baby bird turns into an opportunity to learn anew about love. It made me wonder, since energy connection needs no proximity, perhaps, when she returns to the wild, you can fill your heart with your love for her and she will feel it. And, I reckon, she will offer a love transmission of her own in return.
Sarah, thank you so much for reading, and for your beautiful suggestion. I struggle to imagine a time in the future where my heart won't be bursting with love for this tiny bird. The thought that she will still feel it, out in the wild, is special tonic.
Aww, Sparkle - look at her peep through your glasses! She's not a pet, of course - but I do get a similar feeling sometimes with Bubba, knowing when we adopted him that he has no more than 10-15 years to experience the wholeness of life and that we will probably outlive him. We must seem like strange ageless beings to them...
Oh, dear sweet Bubba! Yes, I hadn't thought of that, we probably seem to be functioning more on geological time to these little guys. It's funny, with Sparks, I was deliberately a bit guarded at the beginning (Goldfinches are notorious for not making it) but after a while the guardedness was actually exhausting, so I just had to stop and let myself fall fully in love with her. I so wish I could get a glimpse of what Bubba's perception of time is like...
I like to think of him as a little Buddha, forever basking in the Eternal Now of Daddy's Love. 😍 I was going to say how difficult it must be not to snuggle with a bird, but the peeping through your glasses was wildly adorable and intimate. ❤️
"the Eternal Now of Daddy's Love" 😭💜 these wise fur and feather children of ours... And Sparkle definitely has her little version of snuggles. She sticks to me like glue after she's had a bath. I wonder if it's because she instinctively knows she's a bit vulnerable then... I'll take her over to the window to let the sun warm her up while she's drying off, but she always falls asleep, so I spend the next hour going, "Sparkle! Wake up! Shake your feathers!" 🤭
We choose this heartbreak when we love, we know they will leave us or we them, in the end. But perhaps, in living and loving and letting go, we gift a tiny part of our souls that they take with them, and they gift us a tiny part of their soul in return, and we are better for it. Because, after all, perhaps, more love is the answer to everything…. Truly beautiful Chloe. Thank you for this gift 💛
Emily, thank you for this gift 💛 it'll be the greatest honour if she takes a tiny part of my soul with her, when it's time. And you're right, I think that the appropriate time for more love is, and always will be, now. Thank you, thank you 💛
Goddamn it, why did I read this in public? Men aren’t supposed to have tears welling in their eyes.
Haha, Brian! Didn't you know that real men all have tears welling up in their eyes..?! It's the ones that don't that you need to look out for...
Bravery and heartbreak, love and grief - it all comes as one and we risk it. Beautiful words, Chloe Hope. Thank you.
And thank goodness we do. Thank you, Sharron
Enchanting, and further enhanced by the wood pigeon in the audio. I think we are all a little in love with Sparkle ✨️
Those woods pigeons insist themselves on everything, bless them. And yes, she's dangerously easy to fall in love with
ah Chloe, you share so tenderly the gifts and risks (grief) when we offer our hearts to the world…grief wedded with joy. thank you for bringing Sparkle and sparkle into our day. 💫✨
Anne, thank you so much, it's such a pleasure to share Sparkle ✨
I love the photo of you and your little friend, Chloe. I'm sorry you been struggling. We've missed you, but totally understand the need to go underground from time to time.
Thanks a lot, Ben
When, of a morning, she stretches her wings, she looks like a tiny cathedral, the fractals and symmetry in her body nothing short of divine.
This- is alchemy. Beautiful post. Thank you for your eyes, your filters, your whole being. Grateful for you.
Jo, thank you, so very much. I'm grateful for you.
I think I love Sparkle too
I can't blame you, Laura :)