Hope is the thing with feathers

watercolor & watercolor pencil, 2009

size: ? I don't know.  Given as a greeting card to someone.

from a photo I took in our yard

"'Hope' is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops  - at all-

And sweetest  - in the Gale -  is heard - 

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I've heard it in the chillest land - 

And on the strangest Sea - 

Yet  - never -  in Extremity,

It asked a crumb  - of me."

- Emily Dickinson

from The Poems of Emily Dickinson, edit. R.W. Franklin, Harvard University Press, 1999

This is one of my favorite graces for mealtime/anytime: giving thanks for things in nature that don't demand anything of us.  

Provocative question: Does the universe operate on a quid pro quo basis?  Does your conclusion carry a prescription for how we should operate as humans?  How does this inform our relationship with the Divine?

I chose the Black-capped Chickadee for this poem because of (besides its Cute Factor) its remarkable ability to regulate its body temperature.  You could look it up ;)