An Early Morning Reminder: "The Readiness Is All"

by Jane Stahl

An early morning accident the day before Thanksgiving is a reminder that while holidays are happy for some, there is sadness for others.

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“There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all. Since no man of aught he leaves knows, what is ’t to leave betimes? Let be.” ~Hamlet

An ordinary bird crashed into my window.

Scared me.

He landed, though, right side up, on the evergreen below.

He’s resting now, panting silently.

His little chest rises and falls and

Wisps of breath give hopeful sign he’ll fly away to join his friends and family.

I really hope he can.

Tomorrow is the holiday meant for family and friends.

I watch.

Today no friend appears to comfort or to grieve his plight.

It’s just the two of us. There’s nothing I can do.

He sees me watching over him.

I think he knows I feel his pain

Of stuffing all knocked out, hoping only that the suffering will end, and soon,

Not really caring how.

True this: we know not when or how our end appears.

“The readiness is all…Let be.”

He’s still now.

So sad his quick and silent end, cradled gently in my evergreen,

He’s saved from months of cold and snow, dark nights and frozen branches.

One really cannot hope for better end.

Tomorrow friends will toast your memory and miss your song among them.

And I will share your last good-bye.

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