Love Message From: Charity
Age & Location: 25 years old
Website: www.charitychildsgevero.com
Love Message To: Everyone who has every had a little bird… whether it be one with feathers, fir, or skin!

Your Message:

My mommy and I used to take walks every Thursday and Saturday. It was our “taking a walk time” and it meant the world to me! To my mommy, too! We’d just wander and walk as far and as wide as we liked! And we didn’t even know our way back! Well, now I know that my mother knew the way back, but back then, to a child’s heart, in a child’s eyes, we were on an explorers’ adventure with no map, no compass, no ship, equaling no way back. And that thrilled me like there was no tomorrow!

We had our favorite blocks, our favorite streets, and our favorite neighborhoods. Our favorite parks and out favorite sidewalks. One Autumn afternoon, we were on one of our favorite sidewalks which ended at a cross between four roads. Just before we turned at the corner to take the next sidewalk, mommy spotted a little blue-black-brown bird at the wayside, laying down on the ground, rolled over on it’s side. “Oh, look! A bird, Charity!” She picked the fat little bird up and inspected it while she held it in her palm. I was just so amazed and enthralled, I couldn’t even say anything! The bird had been wounded on the underside of it’s wing. It was alive and in vibrant spirits, but helpless and wounded. I wonder what must have happened to the little, round fellow. “We’ll take him home, Charity, and he’ll get all better there.” I looked up at my mommy and nodded in astonishment.

The next weeks were spent on medicating the bird’s wing. My mommy would get a ball of cotton wool, dip it in hydrogen peroxide, and with it clean and medicate Little Bird’s wing. While it couldn’t fly yet, it stayed perched on my finger when I went about the house. Our bird developed a home on my finger! Since I was home-schooled, our bird could always just stay there perched upon my finger, and that’s how it was transported all throughout the house. I’m not sure if it was a he or a she. I don’t think we ever found out.

When it wasn’t riding on my finger, it was hopping around on the coffee table or on the floor. We nourished it by feeding it seeds and tiny little things like that which birds like. All too soon, our bird was flapping it’s wings and singing us love songs in the mornings. Our bird made our mornings so beautiful with melodious songs and quirky chirping! It was flying all around the living room, all around the house! I think our bird was so thankful! From the bottom of it’s little heart it felt thankful! I believe that our bird loved us and was grateful to us for saving it’s life, giving it a home filled with love and laughter. But a lot of the love we felt at the time was from our little bird.

Since Little Bird came, our weeks were different now. In a better way! Because now when me and my mommy went for our walks down the sidewalks in Tampa, we had a fat little bird perched up on my finger. No, Little Bird never tried to fly away and join the other birds. It took our long walks with us, and went back all the way home with us. I was my happiest, knowing that I had a bird who didn’t want to fly away from me. Even if it could.

Then came the day. The day I didn’t see coming, yet I dreaded the words that I had to hear. “Charity, it’s time for Little Bird to go home. He’s all well now, and he needs to go fly up in the trees with the other birds.” My heart sank. I can still feel it sink, just thinking of it now. “But mommy, Little Bird is happy with us here, and this is it’s home now. With us. Do we have to?” My mother then went on to explain that Little Bird wasn’t flying away, but probably was longing to be back home with it’s family and friends. She said it would be happier up out there.

I walked as slow as I could, trying to make the dreaded time happen as late as I could make it happen. We were to walk down the street and stop at the part where two huge trees formed an arch over the road with their branches which met each other on top, in the middle. I was wishing the street would become longer so it would take us a long time to get there! “Look, Charity, see all those birds? Little Bird will be so happy up there with them.” My mother reassured me as I stood under the giant tree branches looming and arching overhead. I looked up at what seemed to be hundreds of birds up in the branches that seemed oh-so high and far away and unreachable. “When you’re ready, throw your hand high up above your head. So Little Bird will jump off and fly away.”

I don’t know how to say to you how I felt, really. I said my goodbyes to Little Bird, tickling it’s round chest and tapping it’s beak. I said something like “Goodbye Little Bird, I’ll miss you.” Since I never let anyone see me cry, I choked back tears. Then, I bent my knees, and came flying back up, lifting my finger high above my head, sending Little Bird flying up into the air! And then, it felt good to see ‘him’ flapping his wings frantically, heading straight up to where all the other birds were, up in those trees! “Which one is Little Bird, mommy?” I couldn’t tell anymore, because they all looked blue and black and brown and little and round. “He’s the one singing the loudest,” said my mommy. “Are those his mommy and daddy and brothers and sisters?” I asked, pointing up. “Yes, that’s his mommy, that’s his daddy, those are his brothers and sisters and cousins, too. He’s really happy now, Charity. And that’s because of you. You were brave. I’m proud of you.”

That day, we walked home without Little Bird. And we walked home with a part of me left up in those trees. Suddenly, life was as the same as it was before we found Little Bird. And it would never be the same as when Little Bird was with us. Yet in a way, it would always be different from then on. Because I’d always have a part of me up in those big, giant trees. And I’d from then on always have a part of me flying through the air, singing a love song.

So, tell me if you ever see a fat, blue-black-brown little bird with a scar on the inside of it’s right wing. Tell me if you ever find the bird we used to have.