To the Journal editor:

On a beautiful sunny November morning with coffee mug in hand, a loud boom startled me. Looking around I noticed a small finch twitching on my snowy deck after hitting the window.

As it slowly went still my heart broke and I wanted to rush out to help but thought it futile. After a minute or so, a group of 6-8 finches flew into a small tree close to the fallen bird.

They took turns flying over or jumping branch to branch with their eyes always glued on the still bird. After about 5 minutes, the still little bird raised its head and stood up, with the fellow finches becoming more animated.

After another 5 minutes, this stunned bird started to flap its wings rising from the deck and then flew off with the other finches in tow.

As I poured a second cup of coffee, I pondered. I just witnessed empathy from these small birds, just like my pets from long ago when one of them was separated from the group or passed away.

I see empathy in many of my fellow human’s every day. The yearly canathon for food pantries, fundraisers for those on hard times, and neighbors checking in on those alone during the holidays, and fills me with hope for the human race and the planet.

I then pondered on why I see many humans seemingly void of empathy when all God’s creatures have empathy baked in. Humans were gifted with intelligence, which is both a blessing and a curse. Maybe negativity running through our surplus of neurons is causing empathy to become disoriented. There is hope for the future if we allow empathy to shine though the fog of hopelessness.

I’m thankful for nature’s display of empathy, it was good for my soul. These little finches lead by example and reminded me to do the same.

This holiday season, grab a cup of coffee and reflect on those you have lost, what is truly important to you today and how we can support our community, our country, and our world in a positive way moving forward.

Thank you for your time.