There is a young man, maybe in his 20s, who has been frequenting Council Point Park lately. Nate is a kindred spirit, who similarly enjoys the Park’s ambiance and is particularly infatuated with the squirrels and birds. One day last week he paused at the spot where I was feeding the squirrels.
Nate quickly became intrigued by a cardinal, who interjected himself into the feeding frenzy. His face lit up as he turned to me and said “hey, this is so cool!” and he was genuinely enjoying the experience, so I poured out some peanuts from my bag into his hands to share with him. He quickly tossed a few out and a couple of squirrels raced over to where they landed, followed by one red cardinal which alighted on the asphalt path soon thereafter.
Nate took out his phone and started taking a video of the whole scene, then showed me that video, along with some others of eagles and swans that he had recently seen.
We chatted a little while our furry and feathered friends enjoyed their treats. Then we both looked up in the tree and noticed the male cardinal looking down at us expectantly, probably awaiting more peanuts to be doled out to the squirrels, so he could nab one. “Your turn” I told Nate, and, once again, he tossed several peanuts onto the asphalt path.
Then he asked me if I had heard of the legend of the cardinal and what their presence signified. I responded that yes, I had heard that theory. Next, Nate asked me if I believed that these cardinals in the Park were angels of loved ones lost who were reaching out to those they left behind. I told Nate that would be a pleasant thought, and I’d like to believe that this scarlet beauty was my mom, who dearly loved cardinals, collected figurines of them, and that Mom was looking over my shoulder as I strolled around my favorite nature nook.
I also conceded it is likely that the cardinal’s motives are not 100% pure and our daily meet-and-greet at the same tree is likely to swipe peanuts when the squirrels are not looking. He smiled at my reasoning.
But, after I said goodbye to Nate and headed home, I replayed our conversation in my mind. I decided that sometimes it is not always so great to be a realist, and occasionally one should indulge in a little fiction or fantasy.
If you’ve never heard the legend about the cardinals, I found it on Pinterest.
I don’t have a tree filled with cardinals looking down at me.
Just one.
And, he is always in the same tree.
This is the picture I took that morning in the Park when I met Nate.
And here’s another photo of the cardinal, a bright spot in a bare tree, in the tail end of Winter.
I lost my mom on January 31, 2010 and there is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of her. If she is indeed looking down on me, she would be clucking her tongue, because she was a fastidious housekeeper, and she liked the house, both inside and outside, to look immaculate at all times. She likely would chastise me for being out walking, or writing this blog post, when there are other items that need my attention.
We clearly skipped a generation, for I don’t have those same genes as Mom. These days I try not to sweat the small stuff, but put blinders on instead.
Note to Mom – I love you, but if you’re looking down on me, please ignore those dust bunnies and dandelions, okay?
[Image of The Legend of the Cardinals from Pinterest.]
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Happy Mother’s Day to you, Linda! 🙂 We know those Cardinals are special,
even if they forget, once in awhile, just how content they can make us feel.
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Thanks Uncle Tree – I agree with you. I decided sometimes it is nice just to embrace that notion and forget the practical reasoning behind the cardinal’s constant appearance at the tree.
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Beautiful.
That cardinal is just so special.
x
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Thanks Melanie – I did think of you when I wrote this as you and I had the conversation about the cardinals not too long ago, and then shortly afterward I met Nate in the Park and he brought the legend up so I knew it would be my post for Mother’s Day. It was just meant to be.
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Ahh, thank you.
x 💖 x
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We had a Cardinal on our bird table in the uk when I was a child we concluded he was an escaped pet he visited for a few weeks each day. I still remember the colour & happy feelings this bird brought into our lives. Angels or not – related memories from these little red birds can only be a good thing.
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I agree with you – I do have an affinity for birds since I had a parakeet and two canaries and they do bring a lot of companionship and happiness. The parakeet talked a blue streak and the canaries sang from morning til night. We have many cardinals and blue jays in the neighborhood now, but we lost quite a few jays back in the late 80s to West Nile Disease. It hit the biggest birds very hard (starlings, blackbirds and jays). I have a barberry bush in the backyard and the cardinals build a nest in there every year. Years ago I would give a cup of safflower seeds to a female cardinal every night when I returned from work – she would fly down to greet me as I walked up the sidewalk and politely wait for her cup of seeds that were just for her.
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Such a nice story!😊
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Thanks John – I am glad you enjoyed it.
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“Note to Mom – I love you, but if you’re looking down on me, please ignore those dust bunnies and dandelions, okay?”
I am sure she is looking right at you all the time. I think that when they part, they manage somehow to stay close to us, just in another form of energy that our brains do not understand yet. But she is with you, ignoring those dust bunnies and dandelions 🙂 Happy mother’s day, Linda
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Thank you again Martha – I think that is true and I have that little guilt that niggles at me sometimes, since I am not the stellar housekeeper that she was. So, I said to myself, I’ll just mention it in my blog post today to show that I am mindful. 🙂 Happy Mother’s Day to you as well Martha.
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The pictures of the cardinals are just beautiful, but the first picture of the mom with the baby is the sweetest and my favorite one.
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Thanks for saying that Martha – it is a favorite of mine as well. I have another black-and-white photo that I really love, of my mom on the day she brought me home from the hospital, holding me so tightly … I do treasure that photo. I was only 4 pounds, 11 ounces when born and had to stay in the hospital until I got a little bigger. I was still awfully tiny in this photo as well. (How did I get to be 5′ 9″ tall?)
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Although I have always believed in angels I didn’t learn of the legend of the cardinal until an incident in November of 2016. I now believe that the cardinal that visited that day was a visit from my mother-in-law. I blogged about it at the time and if you are curious let me know and I can link it to you or give you the title so you can search for it. As always I enjoy your beautiful photos.
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Thanks very much Ruth – I am glad you are enjoying the photos. I would like to read your blog post if you get time to send me the link or title, whichever is handier for you. I have read articles in the past about people who look out the window on the day they will bury a loved one and they see a cardinal close by in a tree and that it has a special significance which will help ease the burden of that loved one’s passing.
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This is the story that made me believe in the legend of the cardinal.
https://donteatitsoap.com/?s=kara%27s+angel
I have been seeing cardinals a lot lately and each time I can’t help but wonder if Mom is visiting again.
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I just read your story Ruth and I believe you have something there – it sure would appear to me that someone was looking out for Kara and to have all the cardinal occurrences happen at the same time is pretty incredible. Also, the fact that the car is the same color as a cardinal. I know the females are the drab, brownish color and no one ever mentions anything but the male with its striking red color, black mask and the crest – such a beautiful bird.
Thank you for sharing this story with me Ruth.
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Thanks for reading Linda. I’m am still comforted when to know that there are angels looking out for my children.
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I agree with you Ruth – there was a special connection going on there and that’s for sure.
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I think I feed the self-centered cardinals on my deck that go out to bring peace and joy to others.
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Do you have self-centered jays as well Anne? When I still fed the birds, it was the jays and squirrels that seemed to control the backyard feed stations. They were pushy and aggressive … them and the sparrows. The sparrows are a nasty lot, sometimes overtaking other bird’s nest and you know what they did to my blind. I haven’t looked outside lately, but I think they might have abandoned their nest because I hear no tweets, and surely, as industrious as they were about building that nest in my blind box, their offspring should have been born by now.
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The jays are scared, too nervous to control the deck.
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Miss Linda…………………..no I’ve never heard of that Cardinal Legend before……………………I like it though very much……………………….I am enjoying your baby picture too………………………………
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I had heard it before Ann Marie that sometimes cardinals appear when a loved one has died, maybe on the day they will be buried. I have read it through the years. It is a nice thought isn’t it? I was happy to find an image of it to put into the post. I am glad you like the picture. I don’t think I was very old here as I was so tiny. But I was only 4 pounds, 11 ounces when I was born and didn’t come home from the hospital right away as I was so tiny. My father cut the top of my mother’s head off in the photo, but I liked the look on her face more than some other photos I had. I originally intended to make a collage of black-and-white photos but decided to keep it simpler and just the cardinals and my mom.
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Cardinals are so special, just like, i’m sure, your wonderful mother was. 🙂
We live with a Scarlet Macaw and her red is very vibrant too. Plus she talks well too.
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I have always liked cardinals and my mom collected various items with cardinals on them, figurines especially. I no longer put out the Christmas decor, but every time there was a cardinal Christmas ornament, we would get it. And every time I see a cardinal, real or otherwise, I will remember my mom.
Your birds always sound so interesting Tom and make me think of my previous birds, though none of them was a macaw or parrot, but the parakeets had a great vocabulary. My mom was so patient with them and they rewarded with her patience when each one began talking … nonstop. My mom said she’d hear “Hi, I’m Skippy Schaub” so much she wanted to pull her hair out. Our parakeet Joey had trouble saying the letter “J” and it came out “Hi Yoey” … we’d smile every time he said that.
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happy mothers day to you Linda & I’m sure your mother wouldn’t be too hard on you!
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I hope not Wayne – I didn’t have those hobbies when my mom was still living. Nate, the young man that I mentioned in this post, was very interested in eagles. He had this video of many of them flying overhead and it was a dark sky, even stormy looking. I gave him your website and told him to check out YOUR eagles.
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thank you Linda!
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Very nice👍👌
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Thank you.
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Beautiful post, Linda.
An old friend of mine who hails from Romania knows a variation of your cardinal story – in her version, if you find a dime on the ground, it’s a sign that your beloved parent is looking out for you.
Me, I’m a bit of a scoffer by nature, but maybe I’m missing out. Who knows, huh?
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Glad you liked it Ellie. That’s an interesting theory as well. I have read about the cardinal story in the past; some people say a cardinal will come to outside your window on the day you are burying a loved one and that cardinal is your loved one watching over you to give you comfort on such a sad day.
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Happy Mother’s Day ❤️
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