Honoring the Ancestors by Sharing With The Birds

My Gratitude-and-Nature Mantra to start off the day

I was visiting my sister-in-law in Bangalore, India, recently.

Every morning at breakfast, I saw my brother-in-law, Jay, set aside a couple of morsels from his plate.

“Why do you do that?” I asked.

“So I can feed the crows,” Jay replied.

I knew what that meant. Hindus believe that crows embody the spirits of one’s ancestors. Feeding a crow is a way of honoring your forefathers.

Tap-dancing pigeon…

After breakfast, I followed J out onto the apartment balcony. He flicked a morsel of griddle-cake onto a small parapet just below and to the left of the balcony.

A pigeon hopped off the branch of a nearby neem tree and swooped down on the morsel.

“The pigeon beat the crow to the offering,” I pointed out.

“Crows, pigeons… they’re all God’s creatures,” Jay said.

We watched the pigeon execute a little tap dance on the parapet.

Jay smiled. “It’s good to start the day with gratitude.”

“Toward one’s ancestors?”

“Of course. They made us what we are today.”

We stood on the balcony, enjoying the cool breeze. A chipmunk performed a balancing act on a television cable high above the ground.

“When I share my breakfast with the birds,” Jay said, “I start my day by connecting with Nature.”

“‘Gratitude and Nature!’” I said. “It’s a great start to the day. I should try it.”

Back home…

Once back home, I forgot my resolve until my cousin came over. She spotted a male grackle at my bird feeder.

“That bird looks so much like a crow,” she said.

Her words took me back to Jay feeding the crows (or pigeons) from his balcony in Bangalore. The very next morning, I put the Gratitude-and-Nature mantra into action.

During breakfast, I kept aside a morsel of my toast. Later, I placed the piece of toast next to a bird feeder in the backyard. Then I waited.

The birds — and even the squirrels — stepped neatly over the offering and went for the bird food.

Maybe they didn’t like toast. I put out tortilla scraps the next day. And dosa (lentil crepe) the day after. The items remained untouched.

Location…

I reasoned that the backyard had a glut of the birds’ (and squirrels’) favorite foods. Maybe it was about location. What if I connected with Nature in the front yard?

So, on Day Four, I sallied forth into my front yard. I placed a toast fragment on a flat-topped stone under a live oak. The stone was whitish in color. I figured it would contrast nicely with the brown toast and draw the voracious attention of a bird or squirrel.

I looked through the window in the afternoon. My offering had not been accepted. But when I checked in the evening, the fragment looked smaller and crumbly around the edges.

I went out to the live oak to check for myself. There I found tens of little beasties dining on the toast. My offering had been accepted — by ants.

Today, I put out a piece of my breakfast fruit. This time, a blue jay made off with the prize.

Final thoughts…

Sharing food with animals is a different level of connection from feeding them. It affirms that I am a part of Nature — not apart from it.

When it comes to honoring my ancestors, I knew a couple of them really well. They loved Nature and were not sticklers for tradition. And although they were not deeply religious, I know they would be happy communing with their descendants through any of God’s creatures.

Thanks for reading! 🌼

Here’s a poem by C. Chou from Margie Willis’s in Pure Awesomeness selection. I liked the sweet, tentative tone of the poem.

And this piece by Mel about a quirky walnut tree:

Here’s some of my stuff:

And this one about books: