Monday, April 3, 2023

Spring slowly

Adult male American Robin feeding nestlings

Deer are the first sign that

Spring has come … tracks up the

snow-laden driveway and in the

small meadow lakeside, wary polite

encounters when we drive up and

down our narrow dirt roads — the now

wiser deer engaging us, gauging our

movements and moments to dash from

one side to the other … full-rumped from

their winter encampments where they

avoid the few predators that dare the

deep woods, eat their fill of winter

mast and await the birthing of their

fawns in May and June.

The robins come a month before, about now,

often arriving in a big gang then scattering to

build nests and pair off. The Akwesasne say

they’re a sign of good luck and at least one pair

has chosen the eaves of our log home for the

past half-dozen years. They pluck the winter

grass become straw smack stalks together with

mud and start laying their eggs. My heart bursts with

paternal pride when the fledglings pop

their heads over the nest and then gingerly

take the leap.

How I yearn for their return.

Photo at top: Family of robins by Andrew Spencer/Almanack file photo

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Jack Carney is a clinical social worker who retired after fifty years of practice, nearly forty of which spent working in the public mental health system. He received his MSW from UCLA in 1969 and his DSW from CUNY in 1991. He is also a trained family therapist, trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and has devoted a good part of his professional life to teaching and training mental health professionals, to developing and implementing innovative treatment approaches and programs, and to conducting clinical practice research. He retired in 2010 from a large New York social welfare agency. He now lives with his wife and their two cats in the Adirondacks of northern NY State, where he spends much of his time writing provocative tracts and working as a community and healthcare advocate, heavily involved in the Campaign for NY Health and the enactment of single payer healthcare on a statewide – the NY Health Act – and national – Medicare for All – basis. He is the author of a book of essays – Nation of Killers: Guns, Violence, White Supremacy – The American Dream Become Delusion, published in 2015 and available via Amazon. He has also published over 40 blog posts on Mad In America and Op-Ed News, all concerned with the political deterioration of the American state and its institutions and the measures that ordinary Americans can take to oppose an oppressive corporatist ruling class that is squeezing the life and vibrancy out of us. A nearly complete listing of all his writings – a work in progress – can be found on his website, www.paddling upstream.org.


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5 Responses

  1. Ethan says:

    Lovely ❤️

  2. Laura Whalen-Steege says:

    What a beautiful picture! Warmer weather is on it’s way.

  3. ADKresident says:

    Very nice! 🌷

  4. JacK Carney says:

    Thai you all for supportive comments. Thank you Melissa for posting. Much appreciated.

    Jack

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