good morning

I took today off for many reasons - the official one being my son's last day of school. In actuality, I think it's much more a mental health day.

It's currently 8:30 am, the weather is perfect, I'm sitting on my balcony in my pajamas sipping coffee, planning my grocery shopping excursion, and watching the ducks in the pond across the street from me as medieval music plays quietly from my phone beside me.

From time to time my attention is caught by some of the barn swallows that are trying to make a home in the eaves below me. I watch as one flies from the pond area carrying a large feather in its beak. From time to time it loses its grip on it and quickly dives to catch it before it hits the ground. This happens three or for times to the poor thing. It finally lands on the gutter near where it is nesting and sets the feather down to rest. The feather is caught by the slight breeze and falls into the bushes below. The poor little swallow tries to retrieve it, but it just can't get to it. All that work and it is lost. After resting for another minute or so it goes right back to work collecting more materials.

Here I feel sorry for it but then I wonder if it has the capacity to feel disappointment or if or is just another step in the instinctual task of nest building.

With this, I realize that I am doing too much deep thinking for this hour and decide to go back to my coffee drinking and grocery list writing.