Fighting Time

I just looked at the date of my last post and can't believe a whole month has passed.  A blog is like a plant...if you don't tend it regularly, it'll wither and die.  So do you want my list of excuses?  Didn't think so.
No new jewelry this month (yet!), no muse, no time.  The store is in its transition period from a happy, comfortable place to stop and chat to summer mode, when everyone is back from wherever and they haven't been here long enough to slow down.  Rush, rush, rush.  
I've been reading Kate McKinnon's blog and she's mourning the death of the male cardinal that lived in her garden.  It made me remember the cardinal who lifted my spirits and helped save my sanity in a very stressful time.  My husband had had a severe stroke and was in the long-term care ward of the hospital in Brantford.  The hospital parking lot was in the centre of a quadrangle, with buildings all around it, and every sound echoed.  Every evening when I arrived from work, a cardinal would be sitting on the top of a light post in the middle of the lot, singing his heart out.  He was obviously aware that he was on stage and his song was amplified, and he was just puffed in pride.  Standing and watching him for that few minutes each evening always made me laugh and give thanks for the gift of his music and the fact that he was such a ham.  The cares of the workday would fall away and I could face the cares ahead of me with a lighter heart.  There's a lot to appreciate about being a birdbrain.