Some days, you wonder why you keep throwing yourself into the fray. You email a friend, or he emails you, and together you whine about the total futility of it all. ‘It’ being, of course, convincing the bad guys you at least have a right to disagree. This is not that certain a given, these days…

And some days, if you add in a sore throat, total frustration at not feeling well, and a bad case of attitude, you probably shouldn’t be let loose in public… Those days? Here’s my prescription (self-administered, just FYI):  Go to the bird store. I’m serious. Go to the nearest bird store and buy seed, or a feeder, or just look around.

Then go home and set up the new gizmo. And wait. Wait for the reliable tide of nature to turn back in your direction, bringing in purple, house, & gold finches; downy, hairy, & ladderback woodpeckers; sparrows & wrens & jays and cardinals… And more. And just watch.

They get along, guys. They take turns at the saucer of water, queuing up like good kindergarteners, only w/out supervision. Rarely do they even knock each other off — I’ve watched a Carolina wren & and a downy woodpecker feeding on the same side of the suet hanger, w/ a hairy woodpecker clinging to the other side. Even the cheeky English sparrows stand in line for water on a hot Oklahoma day.

I don’t hear them kvetching about things, even though it’s hot, there’s little to eat (if you’re a bird — been too dry), mites must be awful in the heat… And I want more of that.

So I took a FB break for a few days — and I feel better…:) Throat still hurts. I’m still cranky. But you know what? I don’t have the same unfocused ambient anger. And that’s a start. Maybe we all need to do less social media, and more bird time.. What do you think?