Glenn Kubish

  Here are three things this week that delivered some happiness and gratitude this week:                                      1. Airshow   The dying tree looked fuller than usual. It had stuff in it this time. I glance at the old spruce whenever I pedal home across the bridge on 142 Street. That day it looked like its top branches were lined with cones. As I crossed the street for a closer look, the top of the tree exploded into pieces that twisted up and blew away like a dirt devil—a giant, wavy ribbon that flashed with light when the sun caught the underside of the birds’ wings. What I thought were seed cones were scores of birds flocking off together. I said wow out loud, and waited to see if the birds returned. They did. One by one, they re-attached themselves to the branches. Behind me, cars streamed by.   With little puffs of energy, the birds changed positions, like an or...

Happy end of the week, friends! In review, three things that I noticed I noticed made me happy or grateful this week. Here's this week's podcast: 1. Tree of life I knew in my cranks that I was going to turn around and go back. I knew this even as I kept pedalling by the tree. I was tired and hungry, the clouds were spitting rain and there was one beer from Arcadia still in the fridge at home, off to the left on the second shelf. But back the handlebars turned because that tree could not be ignored. I rolled up, stopped, stood over my top bar and listened to the tree—to the birds in the tree. Fifty happy children on a newly waxed indoor basketball court with squeaky sneakers, that’s what that tree off the bike lane on 102 Avenue sounded like. It took me a few seconds to see into the lattice of the leaves. Wow, all the little birds with their little feet hopping from branch to branch, their heads a-tilt, the branches bobbing under the weight of their little bodies that power...