Be Bold!

In all of our 22 years living in Maine we never had a cardinal at our bird feeder.  Scott tried everything to attract these red beauties - food, feeders, plantings and still nothing.  We had plenty of chickadees and gold finch and friends who had cardinals in their yard.  So all that was left was to dream.  When we moved to Cape Cod two years ago everything was put into storage except what we could squeeze into our cars.  Scott insisted that the bird feeder had top billing as winter was coming and the Massachusetts birds would be hungry.  So the pole and 2 feeders made the cut and a home outside the window at our rental in Osterville.  And to our astonishment and delight a cardinal was one of our first visitors.  When we moved to our Mashpee home in the spring we discovered 2 cardinals here so we clearly made the right choice in abode.  
This year our friends John and Terry sent us a beautiful glass cardinal ornament for our Christmas tree.  I nestled it amidst the silver ornaments and sent a photo to Terry.   "'Oh no I messed up your color scheme! " she said.  "It really stands out but I love it."   Me too.  I think that it's important to be different, to stand up and be bold. I read that those who attract the cardinal as their totem are naturally energetic, love life, and happily help others when they can.  Sounds like a good motto to me.