I grew up spending a good bit of time entertaining myself. I was an “only child”. I went to school 30 mins away from my house so I didn’t really live close to any friends to play with during the summer months when school was out. I had some family that lived nearby but there were age gaps above and below me so we hung out together some, but definitely not every day.
We lived in a rural area and I was surrounded by nature. Horses, chickens, guineas, dogs, goats – you name it and I’ve probably had one or lived pretty close to one. As kids will certainly do when left to their own devices, I was somewhat mischievous as you’ll no doubt learn as we continue in this blog journey. Haha.
I did the typical boy stuff. I made roads for my Hot Wheels cars through the pine thicket. I played in the mud. I rode my bike, I painted my bike, I took my bike apart and put it back together. And I burned ants with a magnifying glass – and never gave it a second thought.
I remember my grandmother always being fond of birds. Even today she has bird feeders and bird baths in the yard and loves and appreciates their beauty. I remember my mom saying things like “look at that beautiful blue bird” or “did you see that gorgeous red bird” but I never really gave it much thought or attention.
What’s funny to me now, is how little attention I paid to any of that growing up. All of it was there. The birds, the sounds, the patterns, the beauty of it. But I never stopped long enough to notice it. I was surrounded by it every day and still somehow missed it.
Looking back now, I realize that it wasn’t really about birds. It was about attention.
It’s easy to go through life focused only on what’s loud, fast, or right in front of you. The obvious things. The things that demand your time. But there’s a whole layer of life happening underneath that — quieter things that don’t force themselves into your awareness.
When I met my wife, Traci, it didn’t take very long to figure out that she loved animals. She had several dogs throughout her childhood that she still talks about today. Lance the Doberman who liked to eat pears off the tree, for example. Then there was Moses or “Mo” who was Traci’s grandmother’s dog. Her family talks about Mo being able to say “hamburger” and wanting to order hamburgers at the bank drive through window. Unfortunately I never met Lance nor Mo but I’m sure they were great dogs.
Traci has a particularly soft spot in her heart for elephants. In fact, she has often asked me to buy her one. That request is typically followed up by a short conversation about the size of the mess that they would make and how much land we would have to own to support just one pachyderm. But nevertheless, the question still arises periodically. And yes, recently I gave in – sort of. I found a website called Fahlo where you can buy a charm bracelet that is linked to a wild animal who has a GPS tracking chip on them. Your animal has a name (Traci’s elephant is Jenga) and you can see where the animal has been on an app and track its movement throughout the year. It’s a compromise for now. She’s also convinced that God has an elephant waiting for her in Heaven, so maybe this app thing will suffice until then.
I appreciate her tenderness toward animals. It demonstrates her compassion and empathy. Almost every animal has an advocate in Traci. Even some bugs. She doesn’t necessarily like them but it hurts her heart to kill them. I’ve seen her brought to tears over a squashed wasp. I’m not sure her compassion extends all the way to spiders though. I have been summoned on many occasions to come and kill them. And who can blame her?
I don’t remember exactly when this started, but at some point over the last few years, we have started noticing birds more. We have some bird feeders that we keep full of birdseed in the back yard. We have 5 or 6 bird houses on our trees. We also discovered an app a few years ago made by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Cornell University) called Merlin Bird ID. The app listens to the sounds of birds singing in real time and identifies them based on their songs. It also has the ability to identify birds based on an uploaded photograph but we rarely use that feature. One of our favorite things to do on a calm morning is to sit on the patio and let our app tell us what birds are singing to us on that particular day. It’s almost a game at this point. We often tell each other “I got a new bird today!” And we will compare notes to see if the other person has that one yet or not. To date I have 83 different species of birds that I have identified using the app. Yesterday morning I captured 11 different species in a matter of about 5 minutes. None of them were new, but it’s still amazing that there are that many different birds around our house.
I have a favorite bird right now. He’s not much to look at, but I like him especially for his song. He is the brown-headed cow bird. You can hear his song here on the Cornell Labs website. It sounds both like water dripping and some sort of digital code sound to me. It’s very unique and it’s easy to pick out of a large crowd of birds when they’re all chirping at the same time.
By now I’m sure you’re wondering what all this has to do with the title of this post. And, it really comes down to what you choose to give your attention to.
Birds didn’t suddenly appear in our yard a few years ago. They were always there. I just wasn’t looking for them. Now that I am, I see them everywhere. I hear them. I recognize them. I appreciate them.
The same is true for people.
There is a lot of good around us. Good people. Encouraging voices. Moments worth noticing. But those things don’t usually demand your attention. You have to choose to look for them. You have to feed that part of your life intentionally.
At the same time, there are things that creep in quietly too.
The spiders.
Not just the literal ones, but the things that catch you off guard. The thoughts, the habits, the influences that create fear, tension, or harm if you let them stick around too long.
Those things don’t need to be studied or tolerated. They need to be dealt with.
Quickly. Decisively.
You don’t negotiate with a spider in your house. You don’t try to coexist with it. You handle it.
Life works the same way.
Encourage what is good.
Pay attention to what is healthy.
Invest in what brings life and peace.
And when something shows up that threatens that — something destructive, negative, or harmful — don’t ignore it and don’t let it linger.
Squash it.
Feed the birds.
Squash the spiders.
It’s a simple way to live, but it will change what your life feels like over time.
“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right… think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8)
We’ll talk more soon.
~NG
