The Miracle and Beauty of Nature that Surround Us

The Miracles and Beauty of Nature that Surround Us The chirping of the birds I hear as I write this reminds me of the miraculous diversity of birds that surround me. On Friday, my dear friend, Shannon, using her app, discovered there were seven birds in the yard at the same time. They were all chirping at one moment or another: The ones chirping shone up with a yellow light. A number of the birds I have never heard of before. Northern Cardinal, yes. A robin too. There was also a Carolina wren, a house sparrow, a house finch and a tufted titmouse. To think of their being together in our small yard, chirping away, talking to one another, in languages, of course, we can’t understand. Another miracle of nature surrounded me which I rarely think about. Our trees. Just in our front yard, we have an American linden, a pin oak, a gum oak, an English maple, a regular maple, multiple older oaks, towering now over 50’ high, which Francie and I planted shortly after we bought the house in 1978. They were 6" then. I’m surrounded by this diversity of nature—birds and trees--right in front of me showering me with their beauty, which I have dimly and rarely recognized for the beauty they represent. As I look at these trees, awed by their beauty, an expression for me of divinity, I notice that each leaf is green but with a different texture of green. I learn that the different textures of green trace to the varying levels of chlorophyll in the leaves of the different trees, and to a different reaction to the sun at different stages of the day. That’s particularly true of the American linden tree. I’ve written before what trees have to teach us. How they support one another through their roots, helping a fellow tree that is in trouble. They, like the birds, are miracles of life, too little appreciated, at least by me.