WITNESSING HELP

Just right. I wanted to sketch the crow leaning against the branch, but something was missing...when the Hiyo bird came along and perched on a nearby branch and the two birds peered at each other, it seemed to add a note of interest to the picture. Besides, behind me, I heard someone say to a companion,

"Look! That looks like a Hiyo bird!"

I swung around and responded to the comment, motioning to the sideburns down the bird's cheeks. "That's what it is!" 

Usually, I can't talk to people I meet for the first time. Actually, that's one of my biggest fears. But when it comes to wildlife, it seems all the barriers come down. Come to think of it, that's how I began talking with a Jehovah's Witness here at the park--we weren't talking religion, but about mallards' growth and about the differences between crows and ravens.

God knows I want to relate His Love to others BUT AM SCARED STIFF OF PEOPLE. So He doesn't belittle me for my timidity; rather, He uses my avid love for art and living things to get me to want to open my mouth. What a wise, loving Father, and I'll say it again: how good it is to be His.

Was that a Compliment, or What？

"Junie's Back!"

In the wooded area behind the boulder at Carp's Walk, several birds came cascading down to where I could see them. One of them showed his form rather clearly to me.

"Hero! How're you doing? I told you I'd come back when it got warmer." Remember the Heeyo Bird (I called him "Ditto Bird", May 31 post), my feathered friend? He'd come to welcome my return to the park.

He was glad I remembered him and hadn't been sure I wouldn't forget him because he heard elephants never forgot, and I didn't look like an elephant who he heard had long rubbery noses.

Thank you...?

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HEEYO BIRD, DITTO BIRD

Do you remember "No Problem Telling Them Apart" (April 14 post), in which I'd mistaken a Dusky Thrush for another bird? THIS is the friend I thought I was drawing! Debonair, isn't he? I call him "Hero", because the Japanese name is the "Heeyo - bird", for its signature call.

I don't say "HEEYO," but "DITTO." That is, once after a friend's prayer, feeling "me too," I said, "ditto, God," My friends chuckled because that was the first time they'd heard anybody use it like that.

I guess it felt natural to use "ditto" because much of my communicating with God is done while journaling--writing.

Got it. New verse to that song: "His eye is on the Heeyo!"