House Sparrow

House Sparrow / Oil on black canvas, 5x7 , unframed / $68 including shipping

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I HAVE TO SAY, this might be my favorite painting that I've done so far in the Bird a Day series. 

Of course, I think that about nearly every one, as I finish, but this time, the feeling has persisted. 

I know how terrible it is to prefer one of your children to the rest - they all have good points, they all have their strengths, the things that make you love them - but this painting just makes me happy. 

I have quite a soft spot in my heart for the little brown birds, the unobtrusive ones who don't call attention to themselves, who don't hammer away, or sing relentlessly, or laugh wildly up in the sky, or kill other birds, or steal their babies. The little brown and gray birds are just a part of the backdrop of life, and I find them beautiful, in the same way that I find that patch at the side of the road at least as gorgeous as the national park a mile away. 

***

For Today

Today

Today I'm flying low and I'm

not saying a word.

I'm letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.

The world goes on as it must,

the bees in the garden rumbling a little,

the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.

And so forth.

But I'm taking the day off.

Quiet as a feather.

I hardly move though really I'm traveling

a terrific distance.

Stillness. one of the doors

into the temple.

- Mary Oliver

From "A Thousand Mornings"