As I sit at my desk and look out of my window, I am contemplating yet another daily reflection.

It is hard to know what else to say in this time of chaos, fear, destruction, illness, and death. There is so much heaviness on all of our hearts, and all over the world.

But as I look at the pine tree, I see the white breasted nuthatch running up and down the tree upside down looking for nuts. There are juncos hopping on the ground. Juncos only stay on the ground, so it is easy to identify them with their white bill and white breast. I have not seen very many birds in these trees this winter. Seeing them now makes me think that spring is not too far away. The juncos reside in Canada during the warmer weather of spring and summer.. They come “south” to the winters of New England because the weather is less harsh and there is more food. Once I see that the juncos have left, and gone back to Canada, I know for sure that spring is around the corner.

I am not an avid bird watcher, but I do like to learn about their habits. The nuthatch is the “upside down” bird. They walk down the tree from top to bottom. They reach the bottom of the trunk, and then run back up the tree. The theory is that the reason they run upside down is that they find nuts that other birds have missed. They take a nut and place it between pieces of bark and then pound it open with their beak. By summer they eat insects.

The few minutes that I watch these birds, my mind is not focusing on all of the daily world troubles. Nature reminds us that the divine is all around us.

It also lets me recall the passage from Matthew 6:26-27

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet God feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

May you find consolation in the beauty of nature today.

Reflection for the day written by CPE Intern Mary Anne Totten