Music of Summer or Eye of Robin

Even in the heat—in the heavy humid stillness that makes your skin sticky with sweat and draws mosquitoes to your ankles, there is beauty to be found in the act of deep listening outdoors on a summer morning.

On a day like today, said beauty is not in one's comfort level, but in the orchestration of summer sounds that invite you to pour yourself an icy glass of garden mint tea, sit, breathe, and read a good piece of fiction.  Maybe you only get one chapter in before the mosquitoes drive you inside, but that's long enough to appreciate the sounds of a Georgia summer...

the drone and throb of cicada

the ceaseless chipping of a chipmunk in estrous

the murmur of eastern bluebird faithfully protecting his nest

the slow tyoo-tyoo-tyoo-tyoo of northern cardinal

the distant lazy coo-OO-cooo-cooo of mourning dove

And just now, the whinny of a male robin settling into the grass at my feet, curious enough about the unmoving creature on the swing to hop closer, stand taller, and check me out, eye to eye.  A moment to remember, the staring directly into the eye of a robin.

He must have decided I was little threat, for he returned to his worm search.

And I? I swore at the mosquitoes and left, but not without lamenting that it was too damn hot for sitting long outside in Georgia today.  ~dkm

                                                   Photo Credit, Hannah Miller