When I got home from work yesterday afternoon, my daughter Kacie told me she found a bird on the deck floor just outside the patio door.  She had picked this little one up and gently put him/her on the railing of the deck, just in case life was still with this little soul.

I looked at this beautiful sparrow and knew in my heart he/she was no longer with us.  Eye glazed over, there was no movement.  So still, he/she was so beautiful, a reddish brown color, and young.  I bet this was his/her first summer.  I was sad, and I felt at fault; if I had just placed the screen in then middle of the doors like I normally do?  This little soul might still be alive.  But I was in such a frenzy yesterday morning, I didn't do what I almost always do because I know the birds hit the glass; most of them are lucky and are just stunned and fly away; but not this one.

Kacie didn't want to bury this tiny creature yesterday afternoon, just in case it was just knocked out.  Eternally hopeful my girl, but I did feel the same way, clinging to the hope that maybe?  The bird would wake up and fly away.  But with the light of the morning, I saw that little one was there, so still in death.

With a heavy heart, I looked around the yard for just the right spot, and then picked up the shovel and dug a hole behind a hosta by the fence.  I then wrapped this beautiful little being in a soft white paper towel, placed that beautiful feathery body in there and buried the young sparrow.  I cried as I said a prayer for the little bird and placed a flagstone on top of the grave.  

Life and death; seems like death comes too easy and may times too soon, and yes, I feel responsible for this death. 

FLY FREE LITTLE ONE, know you are loved.  May you be at peace.

--Stephie Jean