A Beautiful Cardinal

In his later years, my dad loved to sit on the couch and look through the sliding glass doors at the birds playing in the backyard, and there were always lots of them because he made sure they were well fed. He enjoyed watching all types of birds, but hummingbirds and cardinals were his favorites.

During the winter, there were plenty of cardinals lining up to take their turn at the bird feeders. I think dad liked them so much because of their beautiful, bright red feathers, and so do I. Cardinals are graceful flyers and they happen to be quite common in much of North America - they are so common in fact that several states have selected the cardinal as their state bird.

I see many things from time to time that remind me of dad: someone sitting on the bank of a pond waiting for the big one to bite, a windmill spinning in the breeze, a garden filled with ripe, red tomatoes, an apple tree bowing down under the load of a bumper crop, a dog-eared copy of Reader's Digest magazine...

Yes, dad had many interests and hobbies that have left me with many wonderful memories of him and his life, and I'll forever cherish them, but the one thing that revives those memories most often is the sight of a cardinal sitting in a tree, singing its beautiful song while contemplating its next meal.

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