welcome

i've had a bit of a fascination with birds for my whole life.  because they are awesome.  first of all, they can fly.  second of all, they can sing.  third of all, sometimes they fly around in packs doing astounding aeronautic routines in perfect sync.  all things i greatly respect and aspire to be able to do.

my parents called me Lark when i was a baby because i was always chirping.  when i was 4 i asked for a pair of binoculars and a book of birds for christmas so i could wander off into salt lake's unbridled wilds and find them in their natural habitats.  i enjoyed this practice so much i asked santa for a pet bird the next year (her name was Happy and i thought she was a boy for 5 years until "he" laid an egg...).

i think birds are lovely and graceful and very often overlooked.  so i look for them.  they crop up in the oddest places sometimes, like poems.  emily dickinson's poem "hope" to be precise.  it begins, "hope is the thing with feathers/ that perches in the soul".  i loved it immediately.  because hope and birds are so alike, small and singing and winged, able to brighten days, and frequently forgotten amongst the more impressive principles and animals.

i'm sure emily had no idea when she was writing these words that they were destined to be stolen by me and used for my blog title.  but i think wherever she is, she's pretty excited about it.  that's why writers write, right?  so that their genius can be looted an pilfered and used again and again?  i know that's why i'm writing this.  so, whether you're a word thief or a bird lover or one of my friends that i told i was starting a blog and practically forced into reading this, my blog and i are glad to know you and hope you stick around for more.