A few days ago I was in the kitchen when there was an almighty bang: a young blackbird had crashed into the window. I was unsure if it was just stunned, so I left it on the lawn hoping it might recover and fly off. Sadly, it died.
As often, this makes us consider our own mortality. In an instant this bird was dead, as we all will be one day. As a youth I had quite a strong faith. Now I am more unsure. What I do realise is how little we know. One has only to think how our understanding of the universe and evolution has changed in the last 200 years to realise this.
In the case of this blackbird, it saddens me to think of all the effort of the parents just snubbed out in a second. They probably spent days on making the nest, then days feeding it.
See the poem "Spring and Fall" by Gerald Manley Hopkins.
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