Care

wouldn't it be nice...to,

even just every now and then,

lay in someone's arms, be perfectly

still and feel safe, cared for, watched over

and the only expectation for that moment is that

the other feel the same.

I have a bird feeder on the patio outside my kitchen window. Though some other birds occasionally come around, it seems to attract cardinals more than anything. All birds are nervous creatures, but cardinals seem to be edgier than most. I mostly see the cardinals alone, sometimes the male, sometimes the female. When I see one of the birds he or she will peck at the seed, look up and around, peck again, look up and around again. It seems they spend more time looking around for danger than they do eating.

One day I was looking out the window and noticed the pair together. The male was sitting on the edge of the roof, just a few feet above and to the side of the feeder, constantly looking around. The female was on the feeder and she would peck....and then peck again. I watched her for a while and it was at least a minute before she even looked up from the seed. Eventually the male took off and the female left right behind him. Since then there have been times when the male was on the feeder and the female took the lookout position above. The male seemed to be equally content with the situation, not looking up near as often as he would have if alone.

Nature is actually pretty simple....man is complicated...