By Reverend George Yandell, Rector
Feasting
Each spring I watch to see how the service berry bushes are doing. Three of those small trees are planted in front of the gallery, and 30 of them encircle the ball ground just west of the nave and parish hall. (Planted there with donations for Holy Family’s 30th anniversary celebration.) The trees begin to produce their fruit in mid-spring. A few weeks ago I saw the first of the little greenish berries, and yesterday after the 10:30 service, I saw them turning a rose color and thought, and “It won’t be long.”
Just now I went to the nave to remove the celebration frontal from the altar. Stepping out to the car, I beheld the beginning of the spring feast- the red-eye vireos had begun to harvest the berries with gusto. Normally the small, dull green red-eye vireos are reclusive, living in the tops of trees. From early spring into the fall, I’d heard them repeating and repeating their call, “Here I am, where are you……” yet never saw them. I spied my first one 4 years ago while hiking near our house after years of searching.
But now a flock is descending on the service berry bushes with gusto. It seems they abandon their normal shyness for a huge feast. It will continue for a few days, if past springs are any indication. By the time they’ve filled themselves and flown away the concrete is littered with the remnants of their flurried gorging.
They seem like us a bit, I think. How ready am I to throw off the long covid-inspired retreat and let loose with friends. Maybe not as frenzied as the vireos, but certainly as hungry to celebrate the ripe fruits of the season and offer thanks.
Come on by the nave and watch the vireos. Soon they’ll be back in their haunts, hard to spy but present none-the-less. Crying ceaselessly, “Here I am, where are you.” G. Yandell