We can learn a lot from the birds

Every morning I start my day on the screen porch with a cup of ambition and a recording. It's a bird app my friend made me download earlier this month while we were out sipping cocktails, celebrating both Prince's birthday and mine earlier this month. It's one of the ways we escape the daily bonfire of America headlines. The more the news out of Washington warns of our imminent involvement in disastrous overseas military entanglements, the more unhinged our current leadership sounds in posts on his social media sites, the more I find myself searching my backyard for signs of bird life. When the president posted a video online bragging about bombing a foreign country, subbing in words to a Beach Boys tune, I posted that I had two types of woodpeckers. When he demanded a CNN reporter be fired, I posted I had a catbird, a mockingbird, a blue heron; had anyone else seen a red-eyed vireo? It turns out, I am not alone. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the pastime is soaring in popularity. An estimated 96 million Americans — or one out of every three of us — keeps tabs on birds, the agency said in 2022. Ninety-five percent of us watch from our homes. Birdwatching is a $279 billion annual business, the agency says. Judging solely by my friends' reactions, it's likely increasing in these times of national uneasiness. Watching our backyard feeders and tracking our fine-feathered friends is an antidote for stress. It's prompted me to ask what else people are seeking in these times. Last month, the American Psychiatric Association released poll data revealing that two-thirds of Americans, or 67 percent, felt very or somewhat anxious about current events happening around the world. Sixty-two percent reported feeling anxious about keeping themselves or their family safe, while 61 percent were worried about being able to pay their bills. With the looming threat of as many as 16 million people losing health coverage if the "One Big Beautiful Bill" is passed, according to the Congressional Budget Office, to give tax breaks to billionaires, the strain is only going to get worse on America's psyche. According to the APA, 77 percent of Americans believe that untreated mental illness has a "significant negative impact on families." This fear is making people long for a time when they felt safe. One friend of mine has been binge-watching reruns of fictional anthropologist show "Bones" with her college-age daughter. "There is something comforting about no matter how awful the death, the bad guy always gets caught in the end," she said. Other friends are meditating. Some are consciously spending more time outside, eating dinners with their family. One friend is rewatching the cozy murder series "Murder, She Wrote" because she used to watch it with her mom in "simpler times." Another unwinds by turning off technology and reading books outside with a chilled glass of wine. One makes time for tai chi. Several — including myself — are making time for yoga sessions. Still others tell me they are journaling more and doomscrolling less. Guarding their peace like it owes them money. Friends who work in the mental-health field report they are booked out for weeks for therapy appointments. Other friends, who own taverns, say they are seeing their own ad hoc "therapy" sessions increasing when the news gets bad and regulars gather to commiserate. We are seeking out spiritual peace too. "There's so much — too much — going on, and it feels overwhelming, so people are looking for comfort, peace and blessed assurance," said a trusted pastor friend. Just when I feel there is too much to overcome, I remember Mister Rogers' simple advice to "look for the helpers." I gave my children that advice when they were small, echoed from my own childhood: In frightening times, don't look at the blustering fools who start the problems; look for those who show up to pitch in and help out. Even in these bleak times, the beauty of our common threads can still be seen. In the past week, I have seen men volunteer to help disabled strangers load furniture onto moving trucks. I saw a child hold a lemonade stand to raise money for the Friendship Animal Protective League. I have seen churches volunteer in the blazing heat to hold Vacation Bible School to entertain dozens of kids. I've seen trash collectors go out of their way to be good to little ones who idolize them on their routes. "Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it," Helen Keller once said. "My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good, that it may prevail." It is easy to be overrun by the firehose of a targeted campaign of chaos designed by a bunch of blowhard bullies to distract and unnerve right now. And that, to be blunt, is for the birds. Contact Chronicle-Telegram columnist Rini Jeffers at rinijeffers@gmail.com.