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willing its rapidly beating heart to slow down and for it to find ability to fly again.

Sometimes my whisper is namaste little one. Thank you for the beauty you provided while you lived. And then I gently place it in a nook of a tree. It seems appropriate this be its final resting place.

I sometimes wonder if that is something my maternal grandpa did. He loved books authored by James Herriot, such as All Creatures Great and Small. My grandpa could have easily been one of the farmers James Herriot crossed paths with. Grandpa certainly walked the talk of honoring all animals - large cows, medium dogs, and the small animals, too. Like songbirds visiting his homemade bird feeders.

Visitors to all our homemade feeders. His legacy of enjoying bird watching and feeding lives on in his daughter, granddaughters, and great granddaughter.

I had a friend reach out to me recently saddened to arrive home one Sunday afternoon to find a pileated woodpecker had hit her sliding window. Though she was there before its last breaths, her heart hurt that she couldn’t help this creature find its flight again. Knowing I was a bird “rescuer”, she asked me my perspective.

My response. To behold a living winged being full of such beauty in its last moments deeply touches the heart in sadness and in awe! When I’ve locked eyes with a winged friend taking its last breaths, I have felt this sacredness that I’ve been able to give them the greatest gift of all, which is to know love. I’ve felt additional awe that I’m holding in my hands a part of the Universe and in this moment we are not human separate from bird. We are one. Since joy and suffering hold the same space in this one beautiful wild unpredictable thing called life, you were experiencing a very special and reverent moment in which in the deepest sorrow is to know the joy of the deepest love.

When I think of my grandpa’s quiet nature and the reverent way he moved when outdoors, I think he was showing me his acquired wisdom that the greatest gift we can give all creatures great and small is love.

Christine Hassing Teaching, Coaching, Authoring, Inspiring Reframed Stories of Life

The February 2023 issue of Consumer Reports had some crushing news! There may be heavy metals in dark chocolate. This was almost as bad as learning there’s no Tooth Fairy! After reading about the benefits of “healthier” dark chocolate for years, now comes this news. It turns out that some dark chocolate bars contain cadmium and lead, two heavy metals linked to a host of health problems in children and adults. The danger is greatest for pregnant and young children because metals can cause developmental problems, affect brain development, and lead to lower IQ. Really!

Chocolate is made from the cacao bean which has two main components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Together they combine to form cocoa. Unfortunately, cocoa solids are also where the heavy metals, especially cadmium, lurk. Dark chocolate tends to be higher in heavy metals than milk chocolate, most likely because of its