Life Without Baby

filling the silence in the motherhood discussion

Rekindling Old Passions and Finding New

I have a new passion: bird spotting.

Okay, so it’s not exactly new, nor is it the kind of passion that has me twitching in a hide in the middle of a field every weekend, so let’s call it a rekindled interest instead.

When I was young, I knew the names of hundreds of birds. Since then, I’ve moved to another continent with new birds and I’ve forgotten so much of what I once knew.  But on a recent trip to the coast, after squinting at a flock of birds nesting on a cliff face and having no clue what they were, I invested in a pair of binoculars and a copy of Sibley’s Field Guide to Birds of Western North America.

In all honesty, I stink at bird identification, and I’m stumped by more birds that I identify, but I’ve added several species to my scorecard, from the tiny Oak Titmouse that visits the “Bird Café” outside my office window, to the magnificent Bald Eagle that circled above me in the San Juan Islands. I even managed to identify a Western Screech-Owl after an in-depth search for recordings of its call. But most of all, I’m having fun rekindling an old hobby and learning something new.

So here’s my challenge to you on this fabulous (pre-holiday weekend) Friday: What can you learn about next week? Maybe it’s an old passion you can rekindle or a new pleasure you’d like to investigate. Find something new to learn and report back on what you’ve learned, even if it’s just a bit of trivia on your topic.

For now, I’ll leave with a very poor quality iPhone photo of a pair of Common Mergansers (Mergus merganser) that I spotted on the creek in my neighborhood. Happy holiday weekend to those of you stateside, and have fun learning something new!

P.S. Thanks to Kathleen for her suggestion for this post and for her excitement over my very common Common Merganser.

Comments

  1. What a great challenge. Can’t wait to see what I come up with over the weekend. Will report back next week!!

  2. In the last week, I had the chance to rekindle an old passion of mine and it feels so invigorating. Here in Quebec, students have been protesting a tuition hike for the last 4 months. In respond the government enacted a special bill limiting freedom of assembly, protest, or picketing in Quebec without prior police approval. Since then, there has been widespread protests in the streets of Montreal and other cities. Each night at 8 pm, thousands, from all ages, take the street to protest the government by banging on pots and pans, creating a noisy symphony. These demonstrations are festive and pacific and they create an exhilariting sense of community in my neighborhood. As a childfree not by choice woman, I often felt alienated from society. Participating in these protests has restored a sense of belonging to a community that I had long forgotten. It feels really great.

    • i just want to add a few thing to my previous post. I used to be a real political activist in my teens and early twenties. Believing as young people often do that it was possible to make the world a better place. As I grew older, I became more cynical and stoped believing that i could change the world. Those pots-and-pans protests have rekindle my passion for activism.

  3. I listened to a dove coo during this wondrous holiday weekend. Her music reminded me of the Holy Spirit who is often portrayed as a dove. What a blessing. Thanks, Lisa, for reminding us of the beauty of created nature which is always shining with the glory of our loving God!

  5. I read this post over the weekend while I was away and couldn’t think of anything I wanted to rekindle. That night I saw so many stars in the sky and remembered how I learned all the constellations as a kid and couldn’t remember them anymore. Then I thought of your article and thought, that’s what I’mgoing to do, relearn the constellations and star gaze at night with my husband. He thought it was a great idea too.