20210521 Birdhouse
In my backyard garden there is a small birdhouse. It has been hanging on the wall of the house for fifteen years and there never ever was bird nest in it. There must have been something about the birdhouse that birds did not like. I have wondered for years what it was. Was it too new? Did they dislike the smell or the colour? Or was it the fact that it hung on the walls of an ugly house? Did the birds in my city prefer a birdhouse on the wall of a pretty 17th century building? It annoyed me that birds shunned my birdhouse. My garden is small but filled with life. Plants everywhere, the soil is packed with worms and insects, among the leaves are numerous spiders and snails. There is plenty of food for birds. And it is not as if they don’t find their way into my garden. Every day there are lots of birds hopping and flying around. Surely one of those birds would find my birdhouse appealing. But nothing ever happened. I thought about removing the birdhouse, because I felt disappointment every time I saw it hanging on the wall. Last year I considered getting rid of the birdhouse. I wanted to destroy it and never think of it again. But I didn't do anything. It would have felt like admitting defeat and I was not ready to accept that. My life has known ups and downs and the last couple of years have been rather difficult. Adding another defeat to my long list of failures was just too much for me. So I left the birdhouse on the wall. Someday the birds in my garden will realise that it is in fact a very lovely birdhouse.