Home > Author > Julie Cadwallader Staub
1 " I am 52 years old, and have spenttruly the better partof my life out-of-doorsbut yesterday I heard a new sound above my heada rustling, ruffling quietness in the spring airand when I turned my face upwardI saw a flock of blackbirdsrounding a curve I didn't know was thereand the sound was simply all those wingsjust feathers against air, against gravityand such a beautiful winningthe whole flock taking a long, wide turnas if of one body and one mind.How do they do that?Oh if we lived only in human societywith its cruelty and fearits apathy and exhaustionwhat a puny existence that would bebut instead we live and move and have our beinghere, in this curving and soaring worldso that when, every now and then, mercy and tenderness triumph in our livesand when, even more rarely, we manage to unite and move togethertoward a common good,and can think to ourselves:ah yes, this is how it's meant to be. "
― Julie Cadwallader Staub