A Gathering of Birds

And, by a most secret method, he can make lovely blue birds' eggs with black spots on them, and when you put one of these in your mouth, it gradually gets smaller and smaller until suddenly there is nothing left except a tiny little pink sugary baby bird sitting on the tip of your tongue.

--From Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

When I was three my uncle's job required him & his family to move to Japan for several years. While they were living there they sent me lovely gifts... a pretty doll, a little-girl sized kimono and a book of translated poetry for children. I loved the kimono and the doll but it was the book of poetry which captured my imagination. The book (The Prancing Pony) is illustrated with pictures composed of paper collage. It contains poems about children, rabbits, cats, dogs & little brown bats... But the poems & pictures I always liked best were the ones about birds.

In the years which followed, I collected travel mementos and many of them, too, seemed to take the shape of birds. In the photo above you can see humble sparrows on the fabric of a kimono I bought at an antique flea-market in Kyoto, Japan...

And these candle holders, treasured for many years, came home with me from a trip to Mexico with my parents and brother...

My husband and I found this pair of birds in a tiny antique store on a side street in San Francisco. At the time, my Mr. Bloom & I were engaged to be married and on a search for something unusual to top our wedding cake. When we described what we were looking for, the shop owner opened a cabinet and from its depths, extracted these doves. They were made by the Hawaiian artist Dorothy Okumoto...

For our honeymoon we went to Italy. In Orvieto we wandered into a little shop where the only thing the shop keeper made and sold were wooden mobiles. Looking ahead into our lives with hopes for children, we chose this mobile. It has three figures: the sun, the moon with a smiling moon-baby...

And, of course, a bird!

Why birds? Traditionally, birds are a symbol of the spirit or of freedom. In East Indian myth each bird represents a departed soul. The dove, in many traditions, stands for peace, the nightingale for love & longing, the owl for wisdom and the crane for long life & immortality. Nesting birds and eggs represent spring, rebirth and potential for new growth & life.

Do you have a favorite bird or bird-story? Please come back on Sunday, May 1st, for more birds and an invitation for a new swap, "On the Wings of Spring..."

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

-- Chinese Proverb