Twilight Icons

Birds live halfway between earth and sky.

Birds neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, but God feeds them (Cf. Mt 6:26). Birds, despite being non-rational animals, sometimes sing in such a beautiful way that it can break your heart to listen to them. There is a lesson here.

Many times the most beautiful songs are those that the male emits to attract the female. In the area where I live now, near a river, there are many blackbirds (Turdus merula). At dusk, when the sun has already set, the male blackbirds begin to sing. At first the noise is quite considerable, but as they find a mate (or at least that is what I was told once) fewer blackbirds sing and, as they are more tired of singing, their song becomes softer. Night falls slowly and there are fewer and fewer blackbirds singing. And they are more and more tired. In the end, only a blackbird remains, singing desperately to the love that never comes.

It sings sadly, and that song is the most tender, the most beautiful. Then night falls. And only silence remains.