Recently, I spent a cold Sunday morning standing
stock still in a forest.
Why? To feed the birds.
My middle child — a 15 year old boy — relishes the challenge of standing still enough to get the more curious birds to come and land on his outstretched hand to choose the best nut or seed to take. It’s amusing to watch the braver birds pick up a sunflower seed and drop it again, deciding that it’s not heavy enough to have a real treasure inside.
My son is truly the bird whisperer. I can get chickadees and the occasional nuthatch, but he’s been known to get blue jays and even cardinals to visit. A friend told us that her daughter once had a woodpecker swoop down and perch on her palm, so that’s our newest challenge.
We weren’t especially lucky that day in terms of birds — just chickadees and nuthatches — and the forest was eerily silent for some reason. There’s usually a cacophony of sounds as the songbirds vy to outdo each other. Perhaps a hawk was lurking nearby.
Despite the more pedestrian noshers, I still felt lucky. Not only was I forced to slow down and just “be”, I had a car ride, to and from the forest, with my son to talk about what he likes and what the world might hold for him. We stopped on the way home at a book store to browse — another of his favourite places — and for a cup of hot chocolate, complete with a discussion about his love of languages, and a lesson for me on how to subscribe to TEDTalks on YouTube! It was one of those magic mornings that don’t come along too often.
How do you make time for one-on-one moments with your kids?
