Every month, I like to feature a guest post. It is good to look at joy from a different view than just mine.
This week Undaunted Joy features writer, pastor and podcaster, Courtney Ellis. I met Cortney through social media . She has the most humorous outlook on life, that made me snort laugh whenever I’d read her posts about faith, her children or birds. I was recently a guest on her DELIGHTFUL podcast The Thing with Feathers. Courtney has me reguarly sitting outside just waiting for a #abirdfromthelord . Her book Looking Up: A Birder’s Guide to Hope Through Grief comes out Tuesday! (Order it now)
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When people tell me they aren’t into birds, I tell them not to be so hasty.
“You’re not a birder yet,” I say. “If you live long enough, birding comes for us all.”
The birds found me during the throes of the pandemic. I wasn’t alone in developing a new passion during lockdown: Birding took off in early 2020, with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology reporting its highest rate of participation ever in its annual Big Day on May 9. Suddenly stuck inside, we found ourselves looking out our windows for the first time. In a season of panic, we watched the birds simply going about their birdy business. It offered a strange peace.
For others, it was another season of pain that brought them into the world of birding. My friend Frank was diagnosed with cancer at 36. Backyard birds brought him back from the brink, tethering him to hope when his body was too weak to stand. My buddy David, an episcopal priest, took to birding after the death of his father. Margaret Atwood tells the story of her partner, Graeme Gibson, an author whose mind eventually began to give way to dementia.
“I no longer know their names,” he would tell her, watching his backyard feeder. “But then, they don’t know my name, either.”
Sorrow and joy are strange but sure bedfellows. Those who have suffered much often have their finger on the pulse of happiness in a way those who feel shallowly never do.
As the pandemic wore on, the birds pulled me ever onward. Learning their names broadened my horizons past our own tiny quarantine—there were so many species I’d never noticed before. Looking for them on the hiking trail quieted my soul when I couldn’t find words to pray. Tracking seasonal migration drew me out into nature where the physiological benefits of breathing fresh air and soaking in natural light buoyed me for hours.
Occasionally, out on the trail, a surprise would land in my path or a new song hit my ears and I’d gasp. Delight. Watching birds quickly became my favorite spiritual practice. After years of trying harder and striving more, proving my worth to the Almighty who had studded creation with beauty I was far too busy to notice, my soul began to quiet.
Perhaps Jesus means what he said about loving us. About loving the world. After all, was he who told his followers to “look at the birds…” He pointed to God’s gracious provision, noting that the birds “do not sow or reap… and yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matt. 6:26).
Some days I head out to our local marsh (avocets! stilts! ducks!) or the wetlands near the ocean (terns! pelicans! egrets!). Others there is only time for a brief pause in the backyard with its finches and sparrows. Either way, I stand amazed at the joy laid before me. The birds have always been singing. It is only now I am learning how to listen.
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Courtney Ellis is an author, speaker, pastor, and host of “The Thing With Feathers Podcast.” She is also a birder, encourager, inspiration-giver, and laugh-bringer based in Orange County, California where she lives with her husband (also a pastor!) and three young children. Her newest book, Looking Up: A Birder’s Guide to Hope Through Grief is due out April 9 everywhere books are sold.
If you would like to write a guest post, send me your submission. Perhaps we can find a home for it! With over 1200 subscribers, I’d love to use this Substack to share other joyful voice.
Shemaiah, I really enjoyed listening to the podcast episode you did with Courtney.
Courtney, thank you for your guest post here. I appreciate you sharing your journey to becoming a birder, as you call it, and examples of how others have come to find joy in birding.
I am not (yet) a birder but I do get excited when I see certain birds fly overhead or land in a place where I can get a good glimpse of them. So far I only know them as that "beautiful blue bird" or "the red one... Maybe a cardinal?" I marvel and wonder why God gave some such long tail feathers and others such ornate coloring. Others scare me but some are so impressive and majestic. In any case, I think I'm well on my way to "becoming" a true birder some day. For now, I'm encouraged to keep my eyes open and embrace the small moments of joy I experience by embracing the beauty of God's creation, even if I don't have much knowledge to go along with it.