There’s a clutch of baby grackles being given flying lessons across the road from my house. They noisily greet their parents as they hover nervously close at hand.
One of the little one managed to get up to the hanger for a plant basket yesterday. And got stuck. Or scared, I suppose as he didn’t move for the good hour that I watched, but mom – or dad – kept coming back, encouraging the little one to flap his wings. A sibling in a nearby shrub is a little less boisterous.
And up above me, in my own tree, I’ve discovered a nest. I see little beaks and can hear the weak cheeps of a very new family but haven’t spotted a parent yet.
Next door a new family of humans has moved in. Their own two tow-headed little ones are equally as sweet as they pop their heads over the fence to say hello.
Gardens, too, are blossoming with new life. Over the past weeks, leaves have unfurled and flower have emerged – everything from sweet billowy pink peonies to brilliant red poppies. From Soft creamy dogwoods to brilliant flowering fruit fruit trees.
The world is taking care of its young, it would seem. And the world seems right.
Except it isn’t.
In stark contrast, there’s the news we hear south of the border these days and I can’t help but note the difference. We hear of parents desperate for a better life for their own offspring, crossing into the US only to be ripped apart from their little ones for weeks and even months. And while I understand these may not be legal crossings, tearing children from their parents is not the answer.
Recently we’ve learned that those children are being kept in cages. Cages!!! This morning, US border patrol said that while technically not inaccurate, they don’t like the implication that people talking about these cages are making. Well there’s an easy solution to that. Don’t do it in the first place!
Politics and religion be damned – I don’t see how anyone can condone what is being done to those children. It’s cruel and inhumane. It makes my heart ache. I struggle with words to explain it. How this abhorrant thing can be happening is just beyond my comprehension. So while I try and make sense of it – and hope that saner heads prevail soon – I’m going to concentrate on the good that I see around me. The mothers and fathers who can and do take care of their children. A society that believes in the good of all, even if it means a small personal sacrifice. A country that is generally seen on the world scene as one of the “good guys”. And the privilege of having been able to bring up my own brood here.
Long may it last.
