If you're a bird... I'm a bird.

Hi friends,

The title of this blog is a line from the movie "The Notebook". While watching what may go down in history as one of the best love-story-chick-flicks of all time, I remember chuckling a bit when hearing that line. It just seemed so silly. But... I digress... this entry is not about "The Notebook" at all. It is about birds... just roll with me. I promise I'll make some assemblance of a point eventually.

Yesterday was a wonderful Friday. Not only do I finish work at 2PM on Fridays, it was payday and one of the nicest days I've seen since we rolled into 2006. On my drive into work yesterday morning, I had the windows open and the music turned up. It was wonderful, so wonderful in fact, that I paused a while before heading into the office. During that small (yet enjoyable) pause, I heard the sing-songy warble of whatever bird reminds me of April mornings at the elementary school bus stop. A definite Spring Song in the middle of February. I smiled to myself and looked into the sky hoping to see the cotton-like clouds that line the skies on spring mornings. Instead, I witnessed the chaotic dance of hundreds of birds. All of them spinning, soaring, darting and diving; flying in what seemed to be gleeful abandon to the nearest telephone wire or rooftop. They would dart up high and swerve to the left, cris-crossing over other birds in their path. I must have been standing in that parking lot for a few solid minutes and there was never a break in their sky-dance. Granted, all these birds were borderline creepy...like Poe's The Raven meets Cinderella's singing canary... but at the same time, it made me think (shocking!).

Just three days before, it had snowed in Waterloo. On this particular Friday morning, the sun was shining and it was 50+ degrees. I truly believe those birds thought it was spring. They assumed winter had ended and it was time to return from down south. These birds were joyfully welcoming themselves back home. After a while of standing beside my car (occasionally hoping noone was watching me from any number of the nearby windows), I finally gave up and realized the end of this sky-dance would not be anytime soon and I went inside.
The cool (and pretty weird) thing about that experience is that I could relate to those birds at that moment. Granted, I'm extremely afraid of heights and that whole spending the duration of my life in flight thing kinda creeps me out... but just like those bids... a season has changed in my life. Another winter has seemingly melted away and I am sky-dancing my way into Spring. Those birds had no fears about returning to Iowa for the springtime, they were coming back home with wreckless abandon and seemingly loving every second of it. Those crazy winged-creatures were taking a huge risk, making the trip all the way back home after hearing about only one day of sunshine (a little bird must have told them! ha! too funny). They flew home anyway, despite the chance that their next sunrise might bring winter right back where it started.

Today, we realize that winter never left. It's 32 degrees and dropping. I don't know where those birds are today... but I do know that they came, they danced, and they lived for one whole day of the comforting Iowa sunshine.
It will be spring soon enough... and perhaps those birds will laugh at themselves down the road. They will sit around their nests chirping about how much fun they had during their February sky-dance. While they remember a time that once was... I will find my own sky-dance and, with joyful abandon, spin and soar and dart and dive.

"If you're a bird, I'm a bird"
Tempa