“Every day won’t feel like awe,” I said to myself out loud.
My day was starting off ROUGH. One thing after the other. Headed to TJ Maxx to find a dress for my untamed women performance lecture the next day. Realized I was 30 minutes too early. They hadn’t opened yet. When you already having a day, something as small as that feels like another smirk from the devil. Instead of sulking, I decided to get some steps in and walk the plaza ’til the store opened.
Two seconds later, I saw a mfn painted bunting a few steps ahead of me, right on the ground. Royal blue head, lime green back, and bright red underparts. Crows are common. They give seen-one-seen-em-all. And American crows and fish crows look damn near identical. But painted buntings are neither ordinary nor easily mistaken for any other bird.
And when I say JUST… I mean I’d JUST learned about painted buntings about a week before. Katherine from my birding group said a painted bunting visits her bird feeder and her husband don’t get up to look at no other bird but the painted bunting. I Googled it and could not WAIT to see one for myself.
When I saw it that day, I gasped and he flew off into a nearby tree. (Male birds are the loud, colorful ones. Females be chilling/plain.) I followed it. The few cars that passed slowed down to see what I was doing. I briefly worried that someone might recognize me and think I’d lost my shit. But this was a painted bunting.
I stood at that tree, staring up at that bird for however long (I don’t think about time when I’m watching birds), in the middle of the plaza parking lot, until it flew off beyond my ability to follow it.
One way I’ve been staying present and being more in my body than in my head is by watching birds.
Started during Ramadan. One of my EID gifts was a beautiful embroidered journal that I turned into a praying + birding journal. In my first entry, I wrote that there had to be a connection between birds and God. Walking back to TJ Maxx, it hit me:
Awe is never not present.
“Lemme know when you see an owl,” my son told me after I’d sent him the 50-11th picture of a bird I’d seen.
So when I started meeting up with a birding group in Forsyth Park last month, I said I wanted to see an owl. They said they see owls all the time. Yes! Then they said the city recently cut down the owls’ oak tree (it was decaying), and they hadn’t seen the owls since. Damn! We met 5 consecutive weeks and it wasn’t until the very last field trip that we spotted ‘em. (And I found the first one!)
Awe is everywhere all the time, and it’s also available upon request.
When I went to Monroe for Uncle Larry’s funeral, me and my son went birding on the bayou (although he was more interested in the insects). Was hoping to see a bald eagle, but didn’t. Saw beaucoup red-winged blackbirds though, and I fell in LOVE with ‘em.
I don’t often bring it up, but when I do tell folk that I’ve been birdwatching, I always get a lil something:
- Told Elbi and she suggested I watch The Residence (the main character, Uzo Aduba, is a birder!).
- Ms. Julia said her husband was a well-known birder on Tybee Island.
- lauren, owner of yes please bookhouse in Decatur, said she does too!
- My new primary care physician said she wanna try it (although she’s scared of geese).
- Reconnected with someone I met at a retreat in Maine a few years ago and she leads a birding group.
- My therapist lemme borrow a book about birding. (There’s a red-winged blackbird on the cover and the author said that bird got him interested in birding. This man don’ been all over the world watching birds yet adores that one too. Insert the teary-eyed smiling emoji.)
Today is the first day of Black Birders Week 2026, and I’m kinda excited about it. Bill Davison, a birder and farmer, said in a recent newsletter that when someone asks what you’re doing, instead of saying you’re looking at birds to say “Paying attention to what’s alive right now.”
Not someday. Not when life calms down. Not when the money comes or the schedule clears or the kids grow up. Right now. Learn the different trees in your neighborhood. Count how many kinds of weeds grow in your backyard (and their benefits). Bird watch. Insect watch. Water watch. Star gaze…
Just go be in awe, because awe is God.
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