School Sharings

Peace makes me quiet Peace makes me gentle Peace makes me love myself   By Glen New Zealand

From the United Kingdom: Christopher's Journal Although I have birds that visit my garden, there is a bigger community of birds that live in Granny's garden. Mostly they are hedge sparrows, robins, bluetits, pigeons, collar doves, blackbirds and thrushes and wrens. They all live in the hedges and trees surrounding the garden. They live in harmony with each other sharing whatever food they find. Recently Grandad bought a new bird feeding table and some other feeders that could be hung in the hedges. Each day seed, nuts and water are put out for them. It took quite a few days for the birds to get used to the bird table being in the garden and to start feeding on it. The first bird to go to it was a blackbird, then we noticed the next day that the smaller birds were feeding from it too like the message had been passed around that they had nothing to fear from this strange object. They found the hedge feeders very quickly and started lining up on the hedge to take turns at feeding. It's really interesting watching them do this. Sometimes they seem to get impatient and fly in and chase the other birds off the feeders. The bigger birds like the pigeons, collar doves and thrushes wait around the bottom of the feeders because they are too big to perch on them. They wait for the smaller birds to scatter seed and nuts onto the ground. This way they are helping each other get plenty to eat. They communicate with each other to tell where fresh food and water can be found. It is good to see them all sitting on the hedges on a sunny day singing and tweeting and appreciating the beauty of the day. If the weather is wet or windy, they hide away in the hedges and only come out to feed when they are hungry. What I've learned from the birds is--in a community you have to work together for peace. That means learning to share, to communicate and to practice being patient. It also means that there have to be some disciplines set to encourage harmony within the community. I've noticed that some birds are greedy and another will fly in and kind of give it a warning with a sharp peck. This is like a discipline to help keep the peace and to help remember one's place and partnership in the community.