10:23am…I hear a mad, rapid fluttering at the reading room window. I suspect the robins are back at it…again. Round three. I take a final swig of cooling coffee and venture onto the porch with broom in hand. Again. The porch is luminous with sunshine. I look around. The chimes are quietly churning in the wind and the large window ledge is strangely empty. Not a twig or piece of nesting detritus in sight. I look around, surprised.
Where are they? It appears they stopped by only to say hello, to flutter around the edge of the ledge and then…gone as quickly as they came. I look up and watch a steady stream of high flying birds, robins and maybe others…heading into the variable winds…in the direction of the tree line opposite the house.
They are off to mourn the cathedral…
Oh, Notre-Dame…my heart. Brick upon brick, life upon life, century upon century…and the spire, that spire. You are burning and with the conflagration goes the best, the absolute best of what humanity can be…
690 Saint Paul 