Birds

The other day as we were walking through Rice Park, we spotted a couple of our friends at a bench. We walked over, said hi and offered them some water and cereal bars. They took them, then asked for a dollar to buy some bread for the birds in the park. One man said that only the homeless take care of the birds, and that the rich don’t care about the little birds, don’t even see the little birds. This was an odd request, and we haven’t usually given people money. We said we’d bring bread next time for them. We gave them some handwarmers and introduced ourselves to them, and they said their names were Tony and George. We chatted a bit more, then headed off.

The next weekend when we were packing to leave, Bill opened his knapsack and showed me a loaf of bread. “For George and Tony” he said. I laughed. Unfortunately, we didn’t see George or Tony that trip.

The following Saturday we headed out, again with a loaf of bread. This time walking through Rice Park we saw George. We called out to him as we walked over to him. He looked up, searched our faces for a couple of seconds, then smiled. “The handwarmer guys!” We gave him the loaf of bread for the birds, and he laughed and thanked us, and wandered down to the south end of the park. We headed north out of the park

A little while later we were walking through the park back to the car, and we passed where George had taken the bread. Scattered on the path in a ten foot diameter circle were more bread crusts than I’d seen before. A couple of sparrows were eating some of the crusts. “Breadsplosion!” We laughed. Looking back, I wish I had watched George feed the birds. In fact, I wish we could have fed the birds with him. We sometimes forget that our friends on the street might want to have a conversation. In delivering the goods we forgot the people side. We’ve realized that we need to slow down and leave open the possibility for talking more to people.