In "Look Homeward, Angel" Thomas Wolfe writes, "A stone, a leaf, an unfound door; of a stone, a leaf, a door. And all the forgotten faces." The novel's young protagonist, Eugene Gant, was seeking happiness and looking everywhere he could—behind every leaf, stone, etc.—to find it.
Me? I was seeking a little brown bird. Finding it represented a different form of happiness.
Three weeks ago I was looking for a fox sparrow, a forgotten face I hadn't seen in awhile. Like Wolfe I searched, but found none.
Last week the lost face presented itself to me, just outside my office window in the leafless shrubs behind a large stone. There's was no unfound door or my analogy would be perfect.
Ijams vet Dr. Louise Conrad noticed it and pointed out the gray and reddish-brown bird to me. Fox sparrows are only found here in the valley in winter, but not in great numbers. To find one, you often have to look behind every rock, leaf and lost door.
Or just wait until one presents itself outside your window.
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