It's often very warm after dinner.  We move slowly, as a rule, gathering the dishes and putting the leftovers away.  I am happy for my window over the sink.  It faces out over the valley where the sun sets.  Right out there the other night a family of quail cautiously crept out of the woods and made a rather bold trek across the yard.  It was a success. The dogs snoozed nearby unaware.  Only we humans noticed.  First the girls, who then whispered through the open window, "Mom!  Your birds!"  I dropped my dish cloth and we walked outside to watch them together.

The mother bird eventually led the way northward, followed by a mostly orderly line of little chicks.  If you've ever crossed the street with a gaggle of kids you know there are always a couple who wander further abroad, making their mother crazy.  The male, on crossing guard duty, stayed mid-yard on lookout until the last chicks passed.  When the planks of the deck creaked he hurried them all along into the brush and out of sight.  

There was something wonderful about the whole journey, both of the pair with their jobs to do. Single minded. Each instinctively knowing how critical their role was.  Happy little chicks exploring eagerly with no idea how vulnerable they are, trusting the older birds to get them where they were going.  

This one, standing as a sentinel afterwards, until they were well hidden and down the hill.  The dogs would have gone after him if he had been noticed.  I suppose that was his purpose for remaining out in the open so long.  I found that heartachingly beautiful.  

 "Love is always ready to deny itself, to give, sacrifice, just in the measure of its sincerity and intensity. Perfect love is perfect self-forgetfulness. Hence where there is love in a home, unselfishness is the law. Each forgets self and lives for others."    JRR Miller