little bluebird of happiness

I’ve been posting a lot of pictures lately. I’ve enjoyed the Daily Post picture challenge of the week, and then got excited about posting daily with a photo lent reflection. Both challenges have been fun, and they’ve made me look at things with an eye for the camera lens. Unfortunately, that default almost resulted in my missing a delightful scene this morning.

I was doing some cleaning up in the kitchen after my breakfast, and I happened to look through the small pass-through window above my sink and out through the large window in the next room. I have a perfect view of our garden which includes a birdbath at the end of a little path out to the yard. I noticed there was a lot of activity in the bird bath, so I grabbed my cup of coffee and stood at the window to watch for a moment.

A big fat bluebird was perched on the edge of the bird bath. I’d never seen bluebirds come so close to the house, so I stood for a moment watching closely to make sure it was, in fact, a bluebird. Sure enough, it was!

I got so excited! I have a running joke about bluebirds with a friend, and it was like a little gift — to think of her and send up a brief prayer of thanksgiving for our friendship. I was tempted to look for my camera to capture the bird.

And then I stopped myself. Did I really want to walk away from this delightful little moment? What if the bird left while I was looking for a camera or my phone?

WHY AM I LIVING MY LIFE IN CAPTURED PHOTO OPS INSTEAD OF LIVING IN THE MOMENT?

It took an effort to stay, but I’m so glad I did. I finished my cup of coffee while the bluebird repeatedly dunked iteself into the water. It was so sweet. Dive, pop up, shake the feathers, dive again.

I would have missed it if I hadn’t come to my senses.