Simplicity In My Yard

I watched a robin yesterday. I sat on the couch in my office and stared out my window intently watching this bird in my yard. I watched as it walked around in the barely there grass, still dead from the cold rain and snow. The robin would pause slightly and stand as still as a statue as he listened for any movement in the ground below him. Then without notice he would dive down and begin picking up pieces of dirt with his beak trying to find the worms/bugs hidden inside.

Suddenly a large tractor drove down the road by my house (yes I said a tractor...it's normal when you live in the country) and startled the robin. I thought the robin was going to fly away and go to another part of the lawn, instead it flew into the tree, waited for the tractor to pass, and then flew back to the exact same spot on the lawn and began searching for food once again, as if nothing had happened.

At first I wasn't entirely sure why I was watching this robin or why I even cared what the bird was doing (I don't normally birdwatch). Then it hit me like a ton of bricks...I wished that I was the robin (please let me explain before you jump to conclusions). The robin was so confident in itself to find food and knew exactly what had to be done to locate what it needed; it didn't require someone else to show him what to do. Even after the tractor rode by and startled the robin, instead of flying away it waited and then went back to what it was doing; it stood up to the threat.

I must've sat there for at least 30 minutes watching this robin when my husband came in and asked me what we were going to have for dinner. I rambled out an answer and he went back to go and watch tv in the living room. As I got up to leave my office and start on dinner I glanced over at the robin one last time; it was still searching for food even though it had begun to rain. Just being able to work, feed your family, and stand up to danger when it presents itself, without all the unnecessary fillers that we deal with on a daily basis.

I wish life was that simple...