For break times I often sit on a sofa next to a large bird cage. I like the sound the birds make. It relaxes me as I rest getting ready for the last half of my shift.
These two are among the assortment. I know they are male and female because the male puts on a dance for the female that is quite entertaining (at least to me if not for her) sometimes when the female is walking around on the floor.
They are the birds in the cage that are the most perceptive and most active. At first they didn’t notice me much, and they still don’t mostly. However every once in a while I will drop something, open a can, or make some other noise and one or both will look at me as if to ask “What kind of bird are you?”
Their bleeps and chirps communicate who they are, but what kind of bird am I?
If I could communicate to them I’d say:
And I am a human that likes birds.
And dogs. And horses. And people.
I am kind.
I hope that is not unusual.
The world needs birds, and dogs, and horses, and people, maybe not from the geologic sense as the world itself probably hasn’t grieved its mass extinction events at all. From the human perspective, I think we need them.
And the world needs kindness. I wouldn’t want to live in a world without it.