A Feather in His Cap

“I’m recognized in the area as the man who always wears a feather in his cap.  That often elicits comments from ‘nice feather’ to ‘Is that stick a feather in your cap and call it macaroni?’.  Those comments have allowed me to tell the feather story many hundreds of times.

“You see, more than 20 years ago, when we moved to our home in the country outside Chelsea, we told the farmer next door that he could cut our 10 acres as hay for his cows. One day after it was freshly cut, I was out walking the field and came upon a bird’s nest laying just below the line of the mower’s cut. Two blue pastel eggs lay in the nest, while a foot away lay the remains of the mother pheasant who had stayed on that nest protecting those eggs, but giving her life in the process.

“This represented such an expression of motherhood that I decided to take a few of her feathers and wear them in my cap in homage and respect for her. People began giving me feathers and passing on the story, and we told the farmer that we wanted to let the field grow back.

“Now, over 20 years later, the field is full of wild brush and flocks of birds nest there every spring. I cannot explain the deep significance of this story, but I know that it resonates with almost everyone. I sometimes say that she was a powerful bird who change that field for generations to come.

“ ‘Ah, but you were the ones to stop the cutting,’ some say. Yes, but we never would have done that had she not given her life.”

Pass on the story.