Today I was inspired by a bird. Not a big one like the eagle or hawk, but by the smallest one that had found it's way down my chimney and into my room in the basement.

The frantic fluttering of the chimney swift aroused me...and I saw as this precious life tried to find a way out. This year I've been blessed by knowing such a little bird. The small soot-colored creature, a creature I have always feared because of something that happened to me when I was very young, found its way into my heart somehow.

So each day I search for it...looking into the sky, looking into the furnace pipe that connects to the chimney...searching for this little wonder of mine. Its beak is not large like other birds, but almost nonexistent. It's terrified eyes rest on mine...it fears I will hurt it but I always sweep it up in my hands and send it on it's little way outside...

Somehow I find inspiration in the eyes of this bird...how that is possible is beyond me but I do.