If you take care of the birds, you take care of most of the big problems in the world.               – Biologist Thomas Lovejoy

My advice to pastors

and others who care 

too much is this: 

hang a bird feeder

outside your office window.

Check its contents

every morning, upon

your arrival.  Do this first – 

before you wake the sleeping

computer or tend to voicemail’s

flashing, red light. 

Fill it, as needed, before 

the day’s work begins.  

Look up, often, 

from behind 

your computer’s screen.

Offer the window-facing

chair to the worried ones

with whom you meet. 

The bluebirds, finches,

and wrens will come; 

the male cardinal,

astonishing, in his 

red, velvet coat.

The fat squirrel will

also come. 

Observe your spirit,

as you observe the birds.

Pay attention as you alternate

between admiring the squirrel’s  

clever, clenching claws

and despising his endless,

gorging feast. 

If what the biologist says

is true, it’s worth it, isn’t it –

this time spent to scatter

seed, to tend the feeder 

of your soul?