Every spring the barn swallows return to my barn to bring up their young. "Hello!" I am excited to see last year's babies come back to their old homestead to raise new families. When I enter the barn to feed the horses, they stay up in their nests and watch me. Once in awhile, they'll flit out, but for the most part I feel they trust me and so they stay rested. I feel honored to be trusted and known by them.
I pray for their safety as they seem so very vulnerable, just like us. All they want is to take care of their children and each other.
Somewhere on this earth, if possible, safe keeping just has to exist! I yearn for their well being and find my heart longing for Heaven where no one thing suffers. If only for a tiny bit of time, I pray these birds can rest inside where they are warm and dry and have plenty to eat.
Barn Swallows
Coffee colored specks on chalky white shells
beneath the nest and among the droppings
a constellation of sorts
splattered spring after spring
on a cool cement floor.
Another notch on life's belt.
Reflecting the span of time's passing I find myself floating above the barn where
the swallows dart,
"Lord, are you there?"
"Where am I, what am I, where are You, What are You,
why, how?"
To comfort my own caged soul, I leave the barn door open
day and night to tend to the swallow's freedom.
All I ask dear tenants of the barn
is to keep my horses company.
Thank you for answering God's call to be
Barn Swallows.