The Singing of Birds

"The time of the singing of birds is come,"--the time when nature calls aloud to us and bids us awaken out of the deadness of personal grief, and rejoice in the new manifestations of His beauty that God is making to the world. 'Behold, I am alive for evermore, and the dead live to me.' Was not this the secret saying which the new venture was writing all over the hills, and which the young pattering leaves and singing birds were repeating in music? It must be well to have ears to hear and a heart that could respond with a little flutter of returning joy and thankfulness."

                                                                            ~Anne Keary (1825-1879)