My Glass Overflowed....

Another beautiful day in Westport and we were once again woken by the gentle tapping of the robin. I admit, I am looking for signs and getting nervous, so I did the only thing I knew would bring forth the answer...I called on the wizard of folklores and all superstitions - my mother.

There's been a bird tapping on my window almost everyday for a week now, I said to my mother when she picked up the phone. What? there's a bird in your house?? No, no, no..that is really bad luck..get him out..she quickly responded. OK..my mother's hearing has been declining in the past three years and she is wary of putting on the ultra-modern-sleek-cool hearing aid my sister got for her last summer. NO!!!! the bird has only been tapping on my window, i said in a slightly higher volumed tone. OH!!!!!
That still doesn't sound good..be careful..drive carefully..something bad might happen..birds have no business trying to get inside..then she took it back..she said, well, maybe he sees that you are very happy and he wants to join in...

I admit, I am always a glass half-full kinda girl but my mother's response really freaked me out. So I did what I would naturally have done second and called my sister..OH!!! Let it in, she said..NO!! mom told me its bad luck...I am getting scared..we've got lots of running around today, I didn't want the robin to be symbolic of a messenger of doom. Then my sister said GO GOOGLE IT!!!

Which I did, and according to the Audubon Society of America..the following is the answer to my week's worth of guessing and wondering:

" A male cardinal continuously bangs against the windows of our house. It begins at dawn and doesn’t end until dusk. He’s been at it for many months. I don’t know how he has the energy to go on or how he hasn’t killed himself. What is the cause of this? Does he want to get into my house?



No, despite your best cooking, the bird is not trying to get into your house. This scenario is surprisingly common and is almost always perpetrated by Northern Cardinals and American Robins. According to biologist Daniel Klem, the concentration of hormones in male cardinals increases to 300 times that of normal levels during breeding season. This causes a ferocious defense of territory and the bird attacks all rivals, including perceived rivals such as his own reflected image.

The solution is to eliminate the reflective properties of glass by covering the window from the outside. Anything attached to the inside of the window may reduce reflectivity, but not eliminate it. You may have to cover the window for a period of time, perhaps a week or more.

Attach white paper to the entire outer surface of the window; this will allow for light to enter while eliminating reflection. Try stringing balloons to the outer surface, or strips of shiny mylar. The motion of these items might dissuade the bird."


*** I am relieved perhaps by this knowledge..still, I will continue to monitor my children carefully in the coming days..drive extra cautiously, and thread wisely in the hours ahead..after all, the wizard is not too often wrong!

Hope Springs Eternal

For I dipped into the Future, far as human eye could see; saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Although the calendar says that spring is upon us, local forecasts predict heavy rain with a chance of snow showers overnight here in Connecticut and its neighboring states.
It all started this past weekend when my six year-old son woke up with stomach cramps and a fuzzy headache on Easter morning. Plans for a day ski trip askew...the Easter egg hunt after nine AM mass unthinkable- we greeted the beautiful and lazy day ahead at home.

My family was already up and kept busy in the living room until I made my approach a little after 8:30. As I sauntered into the kitchen passing the dining room, my almost three year-old daughter called out to me to "look at the bird!" On a branch of one of the tall evergreen arborvitaes which nestles next to our dining room window, perched a robin of proportionate size; its chest fluffed with a coppery feathered bib. "Wow!"I said, not expecting what was about to happen. The robin took a hop to another branch and then hopped back to the branch that I had originally spied him on before making a dash for our window. Oh my gosh, can't he see? My husband casually responded that the robin has been doing the same thing for the past half an hour.

As I stood there mesmerized, the robin repeatedly hopped back and forth between the two branches and then flew to our window and ever so lightly..taps it. Big branch, small branch, back to big branch...tap!

My husband tells me that the robin is probably a reincarnation of Logan, our little pet-squirrel friend from two years ago. I saw Logan first, only he was a tiny baby squirrel without a name. My eye happened to catch him coming out of a hollow hole high up in the silver maple tree in front of our home early that spring. He comes out of the hole as if to take in the scenery around him, down to our front lawn, and then back into the hole. Once again, I made nothing of this until I repeatedly saw him in the following days doing the same thing. On the fourth or fifth day, I went out and stood there when I saw the baby squirrel on our walkway. Amazingly, he didn't scurry away upon my presence. Instead, he stood very still and looked at me..I said HI! I wondered if he was missing or separated from his mother..I had never seen such a tiny squirrel.After seeing him a few more times and realizing that he wasn't afraid of me, I gave him his name and started calling him out of his hole. Surprisingly, every time I called him, he came out and came down to where I would be standing. Of course I showed off to the rest of my family and they were amazed. Soon, we all called on Logan, showed our friends when they came over..and Logan became our pet squirrel, growing bigger by the day eating almonds and walnuts from my husband's hands.

I remember on July 4th of that year, we were invited to our neighbors' home across the street for a barbeque and Logan came looking for us. When we first saw him, I was like..no way..this can't be Logan! We told our friends the story and they thought we were joking..until my husband called out to Logan and he came over to where we were standing as if waiting for an invitation.

As Logan became fully grown, I began to get a little scared of him..nervous that he was getting too friendly and will jump on me to say HELLO or something. I started to scream AAAAH!!! at the sight of him, hoping he would be a little cautious..and soon thereafter, he didn't come around as much as he has done that spring and summer. He would hang around somewhere in our backyard next to the kids' swing set. Then one day he found his way up to a branch of the arborvitae and discovered that he could see us in our dining room. We knew it was him the first time we saw him laying there looking in. Winter came and we forgot about Logan because we didn't see him anymore, but one day he showed up and just hung out on that branch. And that was the last time he was seen until my husband came into the house one afternoon and said that there was a body of a dead squirrel outside his studio door. This, we knew, had to be Logan. He had known that my husband loved him and he wanted to let him know that he has passed. My husband buried him far off under the stone wall on the side of our front yard where I had found him the year before.

SO, according to my husband,the robin was Logan coming back to say HELLO! The hopping and flying to our window goes on for about three hours...as I prepared breakfast, ate breakfast, and cleared the dishes Easter morning. And then suddenly, just like that, the robin was gone. We would have missed all of it had we been away skiing. It was meant to be. If you know me, you'd know that I see things a little differently; I was all so grateful to have been there to witness such a neat sign that life IS precious....so simple - if we only took the time to see things as they are..to realize that we don't need to look too far when there is so much at hand to observe and treasure.

That beautiful Easter Sunday..a time of renewal, we had a humble meal of brown rice and salted Japanese salmon that I had in the freezer and some miso soup. Spiritually, we were so full and satisfied by the amazing events of the day, that we went to bed stuffed and happy...blessed to be alive!

Then today...four days after Easter, my son woke me up and told me that the robin was back, only this time, he was hanging out on a branch of the lilac bush next to my bedroom window. Branch, window, tap, branch..for at least an hour and a half and then we had to leave...This time, my husband said that the robin is his father who passed away eight years ago this June. Go talk to your father I tell my husband, ask him to pray for our children's health!

Spring is in the air...the buds on the branches are waiting to pop open unfurling their new leaves; the sight of the cherry blossoms signaling that yes, the time is here. As fleeting as spring is, there is still so much to enjoy. New found optimism, new beginnings...brighter days - aren't these alone worth rejoicing? The answer we seek is always within us...if we listen.