Watercolor Painting of the Cardinal 2/11
It sat there, one frosty Monday morning. In the breaking daybreak of mid-February, the clouds wispy steam masking the star-scattered sky.
Nestled and silent within the brambled timber, a vibrant purple Cardinal flicked its wings, casting flecks of frost onto the dormant grass under. Its feathers have been a stark distinction to the silent world round me.
My mother and father had feeders festering of different birds alike, however why this one rested past the others was past my reasoning. Perhaps it sought peace away from the group, or perhaps it was not hungry, not less than for the second.
We generally see vibrant feathered birds throughout the lengthy summer season days of warmth and solar. The cardinals, nevertheless, caught round for the longer months of wintertime whereas the opposite birds of paradise fled to the south.
What was it like, to outlive in a world lined in countless blankets of snow, and scrounging for scraps? Would it’s onerous to fly with chilly wings and lower by way of the morning swiftly with intent?
Maybe life can be higher, extra easy. Only caring for meals, and mate and little chicks that depart the nest in a number of brief weeks. To reside and fly as excessive as I wished, to be freed from worldly burdens and spinning over clouds of mist.
To watch walks of life go by one after the other simply outdoors a window.
I sat down final night time, serious about this Cardinal. What was it pondering? Why was it there and why had it picked my window to gaze by way of?
My paintbrush swept by way of colours and water, soaking and dripping into the paper. The corners of the singular web page curled up into my palms.
With the picture of the little chook nonetheless vivid in my thoughts, all I needed to do was make the window and let my arms create the scene.
“
She was candy, type, and had the eyes of the Cardinal now sleeping within the frosty hole.
Watercolor paints have been by no means one thing I thought-about myself good at. I might argue that my younger cousin was superior at that. I’ve carried out flowers right here and there, and sunsets that light a little bit an excessive amount of into water.
The brushes and the paint have been by no means acquainted till two summers in the past after I was handed a small wad of money. A message and a smile, to spend it so I might create greater than what I knew was attainable.
She was candy, type, and had the eyes of the Cardinal now sleeping within the frosty hole.
So within the heat of the second, the chook was enraptured in paints just like the love and care she gave to me.
In the morning, after I woke, the very first thing I did was search for the Cardinal. Sure sufficient, it was there, watching over the breaking daybreak. Free and untethered.
I’ve been instructed to make choices I received’t remorse, however that’s onerous after I’m confronted with hundreds on daily basis. That being mentioned, those I do remorse burn like risky flames consuming away at paper within the fireside.
I remorse not attempting onerous sufficient. I remorse not figuring out why this Cardinal is at all times there. Because when it flies away, I’ll by no means see it once more or realize it’s the identical chook because it was earlier than.
I had a good friend, who as soon as instructed me that Cardinals are family members, who’ve handed the edge of life and dying, despatched to look at over their households.
So, in mourning, I can forgive the remorse as a result of that chook is simply her, smiling again at me. She says that she is blissful, free to reside in peace, and flies above fear, concern, frustration, anger, and all of the issues we have been by no means meant to endure.
I’ll discover peace, identical to the remainder, as a result of she’s going to by no means actually depart us, identical to we by no means left her.
