take it anyway

no animals were harmed in the taking of this picture
A family of yellow-breasted birds is homesteading nearby and training their babies to fly. I caught this one (almost wrote: on film; I'm so last century), not because I have an ultra zoom on my camera, but because it's so young that it didn't quite know what to do when I approached - I know I could have put my finger out and it would have hopped onto it. If it had, a kerfuffle of feathers would have ensued; the parent birds were going crazy a little farther off, trying to keep an eye on the monster human with the camera and three other fledgelings ready to fly off on their own. Lots of sharp warnings were sounded. The thing is that I can't identify this bird. I checked my trusty Audubon Field Guide but it's not clear; warbler? kingbird? goldfinch?

They're super-cute though and they all look healthy and strong. I'm so Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm these days. Horses in the field, birds on the adobe wall, a snake in my neighbor's yard, my dog resting in the shade, the wind cooling things down. Yellow birds and all. Cholla blooming near the Rio Grande.

Sounds idyllic, no? It is in a way. Local friends on facebook are always waxing poetic about the place (well, most of them are poets), but life goes on with it's joys, difficulties, messy bits. This isn't
lalalandia. Someone I care deeply for has been in a hospital far away for a week with a mysterious ailment that still goes undiagnosed. Stress begins to fall on me like rain as I realize the first week of June is over already and I'd better work double-time if I'm to complete the schedule I'd optimistically mapped out  for this month.

As poet Ruth Stone said"
You have to allow yourself to take joy,
otherwise you're no good to anyone.