Morning Walk

Morning Walk
Hisato Kawata

Early one morning when I was out on a walk in my neighborhood, a sparrow came and landed right in front of me. With its tiny beak the sparrow started pecking around at something on the ground, probably something to eat. But whatever it was, it was so tiny that I couldn’t recognize what it was. After hopping around a while to find another thing to peck at, it flew up and perched on one of the cables that came across from a nearby utility pole. There on the cable the bird resumed pecking. “What are you pecking at up there? Is there anything to eat on the electric cable?” I wondered and kept walking.

Around a corner of the street, I found some weeds growing from a crack in the asphalt along the roadside edge. One of them had tiny yet pretty flowers blooming on its top. I bent forward to take a closer look at it. In the breeze the weed seemed to swing its flowery heads gently back and forth as though to wave “hello” or “good morning” to me. I smiled at them and set out on my walking journey again.

After a while I found another sparrow pecking around on the side of the road. When I passed it, the sparrow quit what he was doing and flew to my side and landed a little ahead of me, resuming his pecking. When I passed him again, he flew again to my side and resumed his pecking business again. The bird repeated this routine to keep me company for a while before finally flying away. “Goodbye buddy. Thanks for your company,” I said to myself and kept walking. A little later I saw yet another sparrow doing the same thing on the road. When I reached the bird, it flew up and perched on a wall next to someone’s entrance gate. There the sparrow also resumed its pecking. Sparrows seemed to be everywhere, busy pecking around the place. They were doing this to get something to eat for sure, but at the same time, they seemed to clean the place by pecking wherever they went. “Good job sparrows!”

There was a nice breeze early that morning. On the side of the street, weeds were growing here and there from the cracks in the asphalt, some having tiny flowers on their tops, gently swinging in the breeze to greet me. On the side of the road, sparrows were busy pecking around. Busy as they were, one of them kept me company while doing its morning chore. Tiny world that it is, it is a wonderful world.