Some birds brave the cold

I was staring out my bedroom window the other day, the day of an extreme cold weather warning here in Toronto. Our city normally gets cold this time of year, so for there to be a warning means it was serious. Stay inside if you can type of serious.

Yet as I was gazing at the frozen world, I saw these petit, brown birds, darting tree to tree, shifting their tiny heads back and forth, chirping melodic tunes I could only hear because they were so close.

Observing these birds, I wondered why they were still here. Why didn’t they fly south like so many of their peers? At this point, I obviously could’ve googled it and found a scientific answer, but instead I let my mind wander and it carried me to my own life.

I figured some birds just brave the cold. They stay the course despite knowing that they’d have to endure extreme cold weather warnings, snowfall, and not as much food. They do this knowing they could’ve followed their peers to warmer climates, greener scenery, more of their friends to fly with.

I thought about how many times I’ve written through the cold. How many months and years passed that I felt alone while trying to share my stories. No one was…