by Julia Zarankin
The reviews weren't great on this, but it was at the library and I decided to take a chance. I'm glad--mostly--I did. I was not expecting it to be a real book about birding, but rather a memoir about a person who got into birding. And I got exactly what I expected.
There was less humor and more depth than I expected. She used her birding endeavor as a way to grow out of herself and learn many life lessons--relying on one's own judgement; overcoming self-doubt; plus, one that I took very well to heart: seeing and hearing and enjoying what's in front of you, right now! Not what you wanted to see or expected to see, but what you really end up seeing.
And that's a lesson every birder has to learn early, or else they'll miss a lot of birds. You might go out to see a puffin, but that doesn't mean gulls, terns or even a random albatross won't thrill you with delight. And if you return home puffin-less, well, that's leaves some mystery for another day.
But as I said, it's more memoir than field notes. As she wrote, after ignoring a Merlin who was posing right in front of her face, because it wasn't the bird she wanted to see:
I didn't learn the lesson that day, because I was so focused on my reward--finally seeing a red-headed woodpecker--but I learned it later: focus on what's in front of you, on what you're looking at rather than what you want to see. I try to apply that to my marriage. Focus on what's there right now.
It turned out that when I didn't look into the future, when I stopped practicing the art of augery, when I didn't try to obsessively plan out our life, the present was actually exactly what I wanted.
Good lesson--but all I can think is darn you idiot you had a Merlin right in front of you and didn't pay attention to it? I've only ever seen a merlin once and I'm not all that sure about it.
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