Winter Blessings and Beauties, Day 4: Winter Senses

 

Quite a few years ago, when this blog and I were both (relatively!) young, I wrote a series of vignettes about 'Seasonal Senses', one each for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

I found it a really interesting way to mindfully engage with each season, trying to find five quintessential sights, smells, sounds, tastes and sensations that spoke of each one. I still enjoy reading them back to this day. Humans tend to have a bias towards one particular sense - for many of us it's vision - so it's an interesting exercise to more fully engage with all five senses. For today's Winter Blessings and Beauties exercise, I would like to encourage you to try it too!

Winter Blessings and Beauties: Day 4

Winter Senses

In your journal, write down five sights, smells, sounds, tastes and sensations that sum up the experience of winter for you (you can take a peek at my own list first if that helps). It may take a little while, and I found some senses were easier than others! If you need inspiration, try stepping out into the garden to sniff/taste the air and see what you can spy, hear and feel. Or look in the kitchen cupboards for reminders of the special foods and drinks or favourite recipes that you enjoy during winter. Check your wardrobe - are there favourite winter clothes waiting to be worn? Do you use a particular cosmetic, soap or scent during winter?  Does your family have any winter traditions, hobbies or special activities at this time of year? Are there any particular plants, trees, birds or animals that you seem to see during the winter months?

You may find that once the ideas start coming, you can easily find more than five for each sense!

Winter Blessings and Beauties, Day 3: Winter Tree Meditation

 

It's a cold, bright beautiful day here. The wet, stormy weather of the last few days has at last departed, leaving in its wake a brisk blue sky with a definite nip in the air.

It has also left a lot of bare branches. The leaves seemed to hang on for a long time this autumn, perhaps because until now it's been pretty mild. I've enjoyed watching the colour changes, as the world has gradually been re-made in copper and gold. At the end of each day, when I haven't been working I've made a point of going out to watch the sunset, noting at the same time the gradually changing palette of the valley. 

Now most of the leaves have gone - a few still hang on - and I realised this morning for the first time that I've never really paid attention to the order in which the trees lose their leaves. Every spring I watch the woods and hedgerows for the first splashes of colour (usually the yellow powder puffs of willow catkins and then the bright green of hawthorn leaves). But in autumn I watch the leaves colour and fall but don't pay the same attention. This morning I have noticed that it seems to be mostly the oaks and beeches which are still holding their bronzed leaves while the neighbouring trees are almost completely denuded. A few hazels still have foliage - some even have some green leaves - but this may be due to their more sheltered positions. Do any trees still have leaves where you are?

This year I am appreciating the simple beauty of bare branches silhouetted against the sky. I love the pliancy with which they bend in the wind, the graceful resilience with which they withstand whatever the elements send their way. There are many lessons we could learn from trees.

Winter Blessings and Beauties: Day 3

Winter Tree Meditation

Stand with your feet hip width apart. Take some slow, deep breaths. Notice where you may be holding any tension in your body - shake it out and relax. Continue to breathe slowly and deeply. 

Now imagine your body is a tree. Your toes curl roots down into the earth beneath you. Your legs and torso are a sturdy trunk, supporting the branches of your head and arms. Raise your arms in the air like branches and let them sway gently in the breeze. Imagine any worries or negative thoughts or stresses as leaves which no longer serve you. Sway your branches and as you do, let these unwanted leaves go, swirling softly to the ground where the natural processes of the earth transform them into compost to nourish new growth. 

What else do you need to let go of? What no longer serves you? Imagine each thing as a leaf on one of your branches, and when you are ready let it go, gently and easily. It is time. 

How light do your branches feel now that all those unwanted leaves have been shed? Feel the strength and flexibility you now have. Imagine how easily you can withstand any storms that come your way now that you are no longer weighed down by those dead leaves.

Feel the life force that still pulses within you. And feel how, where each dead leaf was once attached to your branches, a new, small bud has formed. Once you have cleared away those things which are no longer needed, there is space for new and wonderful things to grow in their place. What kind of bright and beautiful new leaves will you choose to grow in the coming months?

When you are ready, take a deep slow breath and come back to your human body, drawing your roots back up from the earth where they become human toes again, patting your legs and arms and head and torso where they have become a soft, strong human body again. Say your name aloud three times.

*****

When you can, put on your coat and go out to find a tree which has shed its leaves in readiness for the winter. Look closely at its twigs. This years leaves may be gone, but buds - each one a promise of the greening of spring - are already there.      

Winter Blessings and Beauties, Day 2: Work/Life Balance

This morning Facebook reminded me in a rather timely fashion of something I wrote  a few years back for Pagan Pages e-zine (you can find my article here). It seems related to this new project about embracing winter, as it is a piece questioning our attitudes to the dark, and we are - no doubt about it - now in the 'dark half' of the year. It set me pondering about the reasons we seem to have a hard time being positive about the winter. The cold, dark, damp days when we have to bundle up against the elements are one obvious reason, and the article I have linked to hopefully begins the process of re-thinking those attitudes. But another, perhaps less obvious reason, appeared to me when I began this series of posts. 

When I came up with the idea of 'Winter Blessings and Beauties' I wanted to find a short, succinct title that would sum up what I was trying to convey about winter. I wanted something positive and encouraging, something that was cosy but not boring, something that conveyed the idea of all the positive aspects of winter. Words like 'Hygge' and 'Cwtch' (from the Danish and Welsh respectively) seemed good, but I wanted an English equivalent. I wanted to include the idea that winter should be a time of rest and renewal for ourselves, a breathing space attuned to the slower, deeper rhythms of nature in winter. In search for such a word, I turned to an online Thesaurus and looked for synonyms for words like 'rest' and 'relax'. As I browsed through the results returned by the thesaurus - branching off along the way into a kind of mind-map of words around these ideas - I was shocked. There were so many judgemental, negative words relating to this idea. Just a small selection - 'idle, laze, loaf, loll, slack off, bum, dilly dally, loiter, dawdle, fritter away, wallow, indolence, sloth, vegetate, waste time, lounge around...'. Oh dear! It seems like taking some time out for yourself to rest and recuperate is not really seen as a good thing.

Why should this be the case? Presumably it's partly the legacy of the Protestant Work Ethic which stresses the virtue of hard work as a path to salvation. It's all well and good to encourage people to take a share of the work that needs doing to benefit the community as a whole, but such absolutist thinking devalues anyone who is not able to contribute in this way due to disability or illness. I do not believe that personal worth should be based predominantly on levels of productivity. I also strongly believe that people should be encouraged to self-care by taking the time they need to rest and restore themselves. The trouble is, the work ethic is so thoroughly engrained in our society that we all tend to beat ourselves up, either consciously or unconsciously when we are not being what we think of as 'productive'. 

I'm as guilty of this as anyone. I was married for years to a workaholic, who used constant work as a way to avoid feeling, acknowledging or examining any of his more difficult emotions. No wonder the relationship fell apart! But what lesson did I take from this? Unfortunately not the right one. Guilt at the failure of my marriage turned into guilt that I had not worked hard enough to match T's efforts, and after a period of stunned inactivity while I licked my wounds and tried to make sense of the wreckage of my life I threw myself back into paid work. When my marriage ended I had been out of paid employment for some time for a variety of reasons (in the years leading up to my divorce my 'job' had been staying home and managing the smallholding), and I found it hard to find a single full time job. But in the end I amassed a collection of part-time jobs which at least kept my head above water financially. And every time more part-time work appeared, anxious about my lack of job security and the resulting constant threat of poverty I said yes. And yes. And yes. By the time the first Covid lockdown hit this spring, I was working a total of 6 different part time jobs over 6 or 7 days a week. I was permanently exhausted. In this respect lockdown was actually a blessing for me. I was unable to work any of my jobs, and ultimately several of them came to a permanent end because of the virus. By the time the first period of lockdown ended I was left with only two jobs out of 6, and a 2½  day work week. Yet to my surprise this has been my salvation. I have become incredibly frugal (even so I've had to dip into my savings), but my quality of life has improved immeasurably. And paradoxically my anxiety about a penurious old age has lessened. I'm living in the now instead of feeling guilty about the past and anxious about the future, and my mental and physical health has improved dramatically. I am working on things which don't necessarily put money in my pocket - such as growing some of our food, writing, cooking proper meals from scratch, making and mending - but which give me a huge sense of satisfaction and well-being. And I am taking time too to rest and recuperate when I need it. My sister has been telling me for years to 'put on your own oxygen mask first' - she was right. 

So let's try to shift that 'work good, self-care bad' way of thinking to a more balanced viewpoint, shall we? We can take a valuable lesson from the natural world during the winter months - all living beings need periods of 'time out', time to rest and recuperate, breathe and take stock, allowing our bodies and minds space to process and heal. Just as we sleep at night to rest and recharge ourselves, let's take the gift offered by winter of a rejuvenating period of slowness, introspection, quiet, dark, and rest. 

Winter Blessings and Beauties: Day 2

Work:Life Balance

On paper or in your journal, draw a circle. Divide it into equal 'pie slices' and label each slice with a different area of your life: Work, Leisure, Family, Friends, Significant Other/Love, Finances, Spirituality, Health (you can create your own categories if these ones are not relevant to you). Then use a coloured pencil to fill in each slice from the centre outwards according to how satisfied you are with each area of your life. So if you are really happy with your health at the moment, colour in most of the Health slice from centre to outside edge - and if you feel you've not been able to engage with your Spirituality lately, only colour in a small piece of that slice near the centre of the chart. You can use different colours for each slice if you like. Remember that no one is going to see this apart from you, so be totally honest. When you have filled in each slice, look at the chart as a whole. Which areas are you very happy with? Which areas need some attention? Which areas are being neglected? 

Use your journal to explore how you feel about each area of your life. How could you improve things so that the areas are more balanced with each other? What would a balanced life look like? How could you get from here to there? Remember, you don't have to completely rearrange your life overnight. You don't have to find all the answers straight away. But if you can see some small steps that you could take, take note - and begin to implement them. Keep a record of each step you take, and record your progress. 

It might be interesting to re-visit this exercise at the Winter Solstice and then again at Imbolc, to measure the changes as they unfold?

Winter Blessings and Beauties, Day 1: Looking Forward to Winter

 

The Welsh name for Samhain is Nos Calan Gaeaf, which means Winter's Eve. That makes today, 1st November, the Celtic first day of winter. Of course, there are several different definitions of the first day of winter. Some people count it as the day the clocks turn back from British Summer Time to GMT. Meteorological Winter begins on 1st December and runs through to the end of February. Astronomical Winter begins at the Winter Solstice and ends at the Spring Equinox (this year 21st December 2020 - 20th March 2021). But it seems to me, if as Pagans we follow a calendar rooted in the rhythms of the Earth, it makes sense to name winter as that period between the day after Samhain (when days have grown short and cold and vegetation dies back) through to Imbolc (when the days noticeably begin to lengthen and the first snowdrops and catkins emerge). Winter is part of the constant change we see around us in the natural world, another station on the turning wheel.

It saddens me that too often it seems winter is seen as something to be endured, a miserable period of cold dark days we have to hunker down and get through in order to get to the brighter days of spring and summer. That's a bit sad really isn't it? Surely there are as many pleasures to be found in winter as any other season. To think otherwise is a failure of the imagination. This year I am determined to really connect with winter and consciously appreciate all its unique and special treasures - not least because this year with the Coronavirus pandemic it seems likely that there will be extra winter challenges to negotiate, such as lockdowns and restrictions on socialising. My hope is that seeking out and appreciating the special blessings of winter will offset the difficulties imposed by the Pandemic. 

Want to join me in this adventure? I plan to post something every day on this topic, right through to Imbolc at the beginning of February - assuming I can be that disciplined! I hope to include seasonal ritual ideas, meditations, craft ideas, journalling prompts, recipes... and no doubt other stuff I haven't even thought of yet! 

To start with, here is my Winter Blessing and Beauty for today:

Winter Blessings and Beauties: Day 1

In your journal, make a list of things you are looking forward to this winter. it will serve as a reminder of all the pleasurable things, big and small, that you can promise yourself lie ahead in the next few months. Here are some ideas to get you started

• Which special occasions will be coming up for you between now and Imbolc? Make a list of birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and festivals, trips etc
• What seasonal foods do you particularly enjoy during the winter? Hot chocolate? Roast chestnuts? Mince pies? Mulled wine? Home made marmalade? Sloe gin?
• What special things do you enjoy doing during winter? Going for a brisk walk through the frosty woods? Soaking in a long hot bath and then snuggling into your cosy PJs and woolly slippers? Wrapping Christmas presents for your loved ones? Curling up by the fire with a good book?

Celebrating Samhain - and Hallowe'en - in Lockdown

Note: To be clear, for the purposes of this post when I write about Hallowe'en, I mean the secular, spooky, fancy dress, witches-pumpkins-spiders-bats-ghosts-and-ghoulies fun and games which occurs on 31st October. When I write about Samhain, I'm referring to the Pagan festival which occurs on the same date but which marks the Pagan New Year, a time when the veils between the worlds thin and we honour our ancestors, celebrate the dark half of the year and practise divination etc (pumpkins optional).

As life began to return to something more closely resembling 'normality' over the summer I began to think there was no need for further posts on 'How to Celebrate [Festivals] in Lockdown'. For that reason there was no such post for the Autumn Equinox/Mabon. Yet it seems I was a bit premature in my optimism. Many areas of England are now in Category 3 Lockdown, and here in Wales the whole country is currently on a 17-day 'firebreak' lockdown which will cover the weeks either side of Samhain. It's not really surprising, given the British Government's woefully inept response to the Pandemic. So here we are again, and we are likely to find ourselves back here again in the future before this is all over. So let's take a look at some things we could do to celebrate Hallowe'en and Samhain - or both - even if we're restricted by lockdown measures.

Ideas for Celebrating Hallowe'en at Home

I have seen people complaining on social media that 'Hallowe'en is cancelled this year!'. I imagine they mean that children can't go trick or treating as they normally would, but Hallowe'en is about far more than trick or treating, even if that is the current cliché. You may not be able to go door-to-door trick or treating with the kids this year, but don't worry - there is still plenty of Hallowe'en fun to be had. Here are some ideas of Hallowe'en activities you can enjoy together, if you are in a lockdown area:

• Throw a Hallowe'en party for the family. Decorate the house with spooky things - you can keep the kids busy beforehand drawing and cutting out spiders, bats, ghosts, etc to hang up. Prepare some spooky food - cut sandwiches into ghost or skull shapes and decorate them, turn a pot of hummus into 'frog spawn' by adding a few drops of green food colouring, use icing to decorate chocolate cake, cookies or brownies with piped white 'spiderweb' icing - or make traditional fare like pumpkin soup and apple pie. Dim the lights, light a few candles and tell each other spooky stories. Or if that's too scary put on a DVD of a classic kids Hallowe'en movie like Hocus Pocus.
• One year I kept my friend's kids busy all day making a life-sized witch figure (a bit like a Bonfire Night Guy). We used a couple of old pairs of tights stuffed with newspaper for her arms, legs and head. A pillow-case stuffed with newspaper formed her body. Then we dressed her up in a fine witchy costume cobbled together from my black clothes and a pair of my boots. We made a mask for her face and a witch's hat out of black card. Then we sat her on the toilet in the downstairs cloakroom and had great fun listening to the shrieks of the unsuspecting adult members of the household as they returned from work and walked in on 'Winnie' unawares! 
• The whole family could have a fancy dress competition. Make sure you have enough prizes for everyone. You may need to invent a few categories like 'Best Witch', 'Best Monster', 'Cleverest Idea', 'Creepiest Mask' etc to ensure everyone wins something, but if you do it will ensure no squabbles erupt! If you can't be with extended family and friends, you could check in with them via Zoom or Skype and admire each others costumes to extend the fun.
• Have a ghost story writing competition and read them to each other by firelight. Smaller children could draw or paint pictures of pumpkins or black cats (or dinosaurs if they prefer!). Finish the evening with all the lights on and big comforting mugs of cocoa to settle everyone down before bedtime!
• Try some traditional Hallowe'en party games like apple bobbing.
• Make a special Hallowe'en playlist (suggestions to get you started: 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson, 'The Monster Mash' by Bobby 'Boris' Pickett and the Crypt Kickers, the theme song from The Addams Family, 'The Time Warp' from the Rocky Horror Show, 'Ghostbusters' by Ray Parker Jr) and have a Hallowe'en disco for the whole family. You could have themed dances too - 'Dance to this one like a zombie!' 'How would a witch/werewolf/mummy dance?'
• Carve pumpkins together (obviously younger children will need close supervision and probably a lot of help!). To get the most out of your pumpkin, don't forget to read this!

Ideas for celebrating Samhain in the countryside or at the beach/park

• The weather is less likely to be kind at this time of year, but if you can get out for a walk, it's a great opportunity to get in touch with nature at a time of year when there is much change to observe. What bird or animal species are in your area? Some species are going into hibernation, or growing a winter pelt or plumage. Some, such as deer, are in their breeding season. Plants are going to seed or dying back. Now is a good time to familiarise yourself with how trees look without their leaves. Many have distinctive shapes that make identification possible even when you only have bare branches to go by.
• Gather fallen leaves, twigs, nuts, seedpods, stones, flowers etc to make into a mandala as an offering to the Spirits of the Land - there's a great article about making and working with mandalas in nature here. Or take some home to decorate your altar and honour the trees as they prepare for their winter slumber.
• At the beach, write messages to your ancestors in the sand at the shoreline, and let the water carry them away as the incoming waves slowly dissolve the words.
• If you would like to forage some wild foods for a seasonal feast at this time of year, look out for apples, sloes and bullaces (wild plums), sweet chestnuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, or beechnuts.

Ideas for celebrating Samhain in your garden

• Create a shrine to your Ancestors in a corner of the garden (a spot in the west, direction of the setting sun and the Celtic otherworld would be most appropriate). This could be as simple as a cairn (pile of stones) with each stone representing a different Ancestor, or as elaborate as you care to make it. As the sun sets, use it as a focus point for a ritual to honour your Ancestors and Beloved Dead. Create sacred space in your preferred way, then light a tealight for each person you wish to honour and remember, saying "[their name], be welcome this night!" aloud as you do so. Spend as much time as you need with them, telling them what you want them to know and listening for any answers or messages. When you are finished, pour a libation to them. Then thank and bid farewell to each of them in turn, extinguishing their tealight as you do so. Devoke/open your sacred space.
• The second Full Moon of the month - making it a Blue Moon - falls on Samhain this year. This would be a great time to practise your scrying! Within sacred space, take a dark coloured bowl and half fill it with water. Under the light of the full moon, gaze into the bowl allowing your gaze to become soft. Breathe slowly and deeply, keeping your gaze soft and your mind receptive. After a little while you may see images in the water, or they may seem to form in your mind's eye. Don't try to control or force the images, just let them come. When you are ready, set down the bowl and write down what you have seen in your journal, in as much detail as possible. Devoke/open your sacred space.
• If you are able to have a bonfire in your garden, use it to celebrate the Pagan New Year. Gather fallen leaves and write on them with a marker pen the things that you wish to shed and leave behind in the old year. Feed them one at a time into the flames, to be transformed. Have a small dish of sunflower or pumpkin seeds ready. Eat a seed for each of the things you wish for in the coming year and state your intention to make them a reality (e.g. "I will enrol on the astrology course I want to do", "I will create a productive vegetable patch to help feed my family"). Say 'So Shall It Be' to seal your intention. Now celebrate - raise a glass of celebratory mead or mulled wine, toast marshmallows round the fire, sing songs.
• Keep an eye out for shooting stars if the night sky is clear, as the Southern Taurids Meteor Shower will be peaking towards the end of the month. Don't forget to make a wish if you see one!

Ideas for celebrating Samhain in your home

• Create an altar to honour your Ancestors and Beloved Dead. Place photos, mementos, family heirlooms etc on it and use it as a focus for communing with them at Samhain.
• Prepare a feast of the food most loved by your Ancestors and Beloved Dead, and sit down to share it with them. It may be a strange mixture of dishes (for example, my own Feast for the Ancestors typically includes custard tarts for my Granddad, Stilton cheese for my Grandpa, ice cream for my Nanna, grapes for my Gan (Gran), a cup of tea for my Cousin Enid and friend Ivy, and a saucer of tinned tuna for the cats who are no longer with us). Yet strangely, it brings back so many happy memories that it is delicious. While you eat, tell their stories (even if you are alone) and relive the sweet times you shared together. Any uneaten food at the end of the evening can be left overnight for the spirits and then placed outside as an offering to the local wildlife. 
• There are online Samhain rituals on 29th October here, or 30th October here, or you can join the famous annual Spiral Dance in San Francisco which is happening online on 31st October this year here. 
• Samhain is a wonderful time for divination. Use your preferred method, or try something different - tarot, runes, scrying, dowsing, tasseomancy, the I-Ching.  If you read the tarot, there is an excellent Samhain tarot spread here. If you have friends who also enjoy divination, you could swap readings for each other via the phone or online.

A magical and blessed Samhain to you all.  

October Skies

 

Paying It Forward: Tale of a Pigeon

I was locking the door when it happened. Leaving work, turning the key in the lock when I heard a flutter behind me. I thought something had fallen from my bag and turned to see what I had dropped. To my surprise a small pigeon stood there looking up at me, head cocked, eyes bright. 

I finished locking the door and stepped gently back, not wanting to frighten the bird who I assumed had not seen me standing in the alcove when she'd flown down. Un-phased by my movement towards her she watched as I pulled the wrought iron gates closed and secured the padlocks. I was expecting her to fly off at any moment, but still she calmly watched me, seemingly completely unafraid. There are always pigeons here in the Square, but normally they keep a safe distance from the humans with whom they share the town centre. I began to wonder if she was perhaps a lost and exhausted racing pigeon, or maybe injured in some way. Carefully I knelt down and slowly extended a hand. She didn't flinch, just watched me calmly, expectantly.

Gently, I stroked the soft grey feathers of her back. She accepted the gesture and didn't attempt to escape. Now I was sure something was wrong, and I wondered what I could do. The daylight was fading and I didn't want to leave her like this, vulnerable and alone. I reasoned that if she was a racing pigeon perhaps she was hungry and expecting that a human would feed her. I don't usually have food with me, in fact I normally do my grocery shopping after work. But, that day as luck would have it, I just happened to have some left over cake in a box in my bag. I have a favourite tea shop where I usually buy myself a takeaway coffee and sometimes some lunch or a piece of cake on the days when I'm working in town. The owners and staff have become good friends and have helped me out on numerous occasions - such as the time the padlocks on the gate seized up so that I couldn't get into work, and they came to the rescue with a tin of WD40 (for the locks) and a much needed cup of coffee (for me). That very afternoon, they just happened to have gifted me with a complementary coffee - and a slice of cake. It was lemon drizzle cake - my favourite! - but I had exercised will-power (an unusual occurrence) and only eaten half the slice, planning to eat the rest for dessert that evening. 

I broke off a small corner of the cake and put it on the ground in front of her to see what she would do. She gobbled it up quickly and looked up for more. I broke off more, and then more pieces which she consumed eagerly. I mourned the loss of my cake but reasoned that her need was greater than mine. Eventually she had the whole thing, and I waited while she ate her fill. I still didn't know if she was injured, and I know how cruel some people can be to pigeons - or any vulnerable creature - so I didn't want to leave her alone until I knew she was OK.

When she was finally sated I slowly reached out a hand again. I couldn't see a ring on her legs, so I assumed she wasn't a racing pigeon after all. Her reluctance to fly away when I approached her therefore suggested she was probably injured. If she would still let me touch her, I decided, I would pick her up and take her home and keep her safe overnight before getting her checked over by a vet the next day. She still seemed unafraid, but this time she neatly side-stepped every attempt to actually touch her. Now I was in a bind. I was still loathe to leave her alone and defenceless, but if I couldn't pick her up I wouldn't be able to move her to a place of safety. 

For about five minutes we stood there side by side, strange companions on the emptying streets. I was wondering what on earth I was going to do. The light was fading fast and the streetlights began to come on. I was already late, but how could I leave an injured bird? And then, without warning, she suddenly took off in graceful flight, clearly not injured at all. She circled once round my head as if in farewell and was gone, off into the sky. I watched her disappear behind the rooftops, hugely relieved that she was OK. She must have been extremely hungry to beg me for food and let me touch her the way she had, but the cake had given her the energy she needed to keep her safe for now.

It was a strange encounter. It was strange that on that day, I happened to have the wherewithal to help when I met a creature in need. It was strange that she fell out of the sky at my feet at that very moment, when a few minutes later I would have been away down the street on my way home. Something about the encounter seemed magical and meaningful. I still remember the softness of her feathers and the trust in her eyes. I feel blessed by circumstance and serendipity. 

On the next working day, as I arrived back in the Square a crow flew down. Watching me closely but keeping a wary distance, he made eye contact and cawed loudly several times, then made a kind of nod of his head before flying off. Call me crazy, but I felt like I was being thanked on behalf of the town birds. 

Thanks to a kind and unexpected gift, I was able to help a hungry bird and felt blessed by the opportunity to do so. It's a paradox, but it's true: in giving, we receive. May we all have cake in our bag to offer when it's needed! Pay it forward people, pay it forward.