Words from Pep
The Least of These
Wind chill crept to -65°F
driving cold through the cabin walls. Aspirin sized spots of frost appeared on
nail heads of the handmade door and crystalline fractals grew on each pane of
glass consuming what little humidity remained. Pine popped, snapped in the
woodstove adding its voice to the contracting walls as logs broke free from old
chinking. . . . . . Finishing off my supper’s last morsel of fried perch I
heard a faint peep. Soon another and another came from outside my window. I
quietly scraped away some frost and squinted into the darkness. There huddled
together in a row with tiny beaks parallel to the sill were five Nuthatch
squeezed against the glass absorbing what heat they could. . . . . . Under the
stove I keep a dozen glacial stones to act as a heat sink. Putting on mittens I
selected three, set them gently on the shelf under the window and turned down
the light. Water soon dripped from the frosted pane pooling near the stones. A
sparkle of increasing comfort was clearly reflected from their widening eyes as
a waxing moon peeked out from behind the night clouds. . . . . . Through that
night, while ice split the trees, I tended the fire and exchanged stones every
couple hours for my little friends. They left just before sunrise and the words
from long ago came to mind, “Truly I tell you, what you have done for the least
of these you have done for me.”
--
ONE WORLD - ONE FAMILY OF MAN - ONE CREATOR OF ALL
ONE WORLD - ONE FAMILY OF MAN - ONE CREATOR OF ALL
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