I walked with a friend through the garden and we came to the tree where I have little hanging pots for seed for garden birds. About twice a day I fill the pots with seed and there is a feeding frenzy between the colourful Mountain Parrots and the King Parrots.
Of course there are inevitable castings from the seed and it builds into quite large piles which I rake away occasionally and when my friend saw the castings she was horrified by its effect on the garden.
“Look at this mess!” she exclaimed. “You must be driven mad trying to keep it cleaned away!” And she turned to me with great sympathy for all the extra work caused by the birds.
Then she pounced on further garden destruction — wild bird feathers. Busily she picked up about four feathers she had noticed lying on the nearby garden bed and among the rocks beneath the tree. “What a mess!” she exclaimed again. “I would be telling those wild birds exactly what I think of their untidy mess.”
So it was with some trepidation that a few days later I walked with another friend in the same area of the garden.
“Oh look!” she whispered so as not to scare the King Parrot in the tree. “When the birds eat, they leave the husks as mulch and it stops the weeds from growing. Do you gather some of it up and put it on your garden beds?”
“Yes, I do,” I smiled, “and it aerates the soil when I dig it in. It helps the plants to grow.”
I was still smiling at her attitude because it matched my own.
Then she pounced. Two feathers lay on one of the rocks beneath the tree. “What a beautiful thank you from your birds!” she exclaimed. “Look, they have left you a present!” And she handed me the blue-green feather from a Mountain Parrot and a red feather from a King Parrot.
Attitude, I mused, we walk with attitude or we walk with gratitude because “The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.” (Psalm 145:9).
Elizabeth Price