Food for the Thought

Everyday this month, visiting birds cause over 50 small yellow nispera fruit to fall onto our patio floor with a loud thud, disturbing a stretching cat or a snuffling dog from their daily activities.

As I watch the fruit being pecked to pieces by these airborne urban invaders I am left with mixed feelings. On the one hand as the fruit rots and falls into the dog's bowl, I am tempted to clap loudly or shout to frighten them away: To do something, anything, to protect the tree's hard-won produce.

But then, as the birds also help dislodge the older fruit, eat the ones we cannot reach, eat many other insects that may damage the tree and - at the same time - sing their merry songs as they do so, I am reminded of the absurdity of trying to manipulate that which has been designed by nature herself. Someone once said that it is the responsibility of each tree to provide enough fruit to eat, enough to be stolen and enough to rot upon the ground. Perhaps we should be satisfied with that sensible balance.

Certainly the rotting fruit provides plenty of excellent compost material for the month. And listening to the daily songs from my office window, I wonder if the bird sings because it has something to tell us, or because it simply has a song to sing?

More of the Teapot Monk's wiley wisdom can be found at: http://anuncarvedblog.blogspot.com