The wheel of the year rolls on, and with its next turn comes a new season. After autumn, winter follows once more. With snows, storms, and blizzards.
Birds gather in flocks and fly south. Some birds, for example, fly to winter on the northern coast of Africa through the European part of Russia. And the migratory routes of Far Eastern birds are even more impressive: across the ocean to Australia and along an arc around all of China from the south. Simply insane distances!
Those birds that remain home to winter face hunger and cold. Not all of them will survive the winter and welcome spring with their singing.
The impact of our human civilization further worsens the situation. Rodent poisons on the fields of southern Russia have in recent years become a cause of mass deaths of migratory birds. The destruction of the natural ecological systems of our Russian taiga undermines the food base of wintering birds. These are just a couple of examples of anthropogenic impacts from many.
Are we, humans, hopeless? Definitely deadly for all living things around us?!
I want us to show by example that this is not the case!
We have been running a project to help wintering birds for several years now. This means not only feeding birds in winter but also showing this path of helping our smaller brothers to other people: we tell about ourselves and our activities in the media and on the internet.
We are saying: Do as I do, help the birds survive this winter!
And we show through actions: This is how you can help the birds!
Every year, time after time, step by step.
I can't say that feeding birds in winter or setting up birdhouses has become some kind of mass hobby of millions of people. But there are definitely more of us now! And that makes me happy. I see results. I understand that my efforts don't go to waste.
This year, I want to emphasize the importance of consistent efforts. Step by step, year by year. As in the living nature around us everything obeys cycles, so we too need to plan our actions in this wheel of the year: spring - summer - autumn - winter. And, to visually demonstrate this better, all projects will be posted on the website, but only one of them will be active. The one that corresponds to the season of the year and is being implemented at this moment in time.
Perhaps I should add: in the Northern Hemisphere of our planet, in Russia, in our Russian Taiga.
This is one part of what I wanted to say, starting a conversation about the wheel of the year. One side of the coin. The other side is the inner content. The internal meaning of the simple external action, in which feeding birds is a step towards real brothers. Participation in the Living world, where I am no higher than a small bird. Where both I and this bird are parts of a whole.
I make no secret of adhering to old Traditions. I make no secret of charting my personal Path along the Path followed by the Ancestors. There is nothing new in feeding birds in winter. On the contrary, it was done many and many centuries ago! It is in the plots of myths and fairy tales. It exists in various folk elements. The ancient pre-Christian custom of releasing birds into freedom in spring is associated with picking up and keeping freezing birds in the house during the cold winter. Not for entertainment or "instead of radio," which didn't exist in ancient times, but for their salvation in severe frosts. And they were released in the spring.
The inhalation and exhalation of the Living world around us are synchronized with the rhythms of the Sun and stars. The breath of the Living planet is related to cosmic cycles. This is not contested by new scientific knowledge but only complemented by it. We are only learning more and more details about the profound connection of everything with everything in this world.
I think that for us, it is important not only the big or small things we do. Even more important is the meaning we fill these deeds with. And a handful of grain for birds is always a Gift. A Gift to their Ancestors, a Gift to their native Mother Earth.
For millennia our ancestors have built and established a viable practical ethic of interaction with the outside world. We are now being intensely inculcated with ideas of the "virtuality of the world." Real interaction with the authentic world is consciously replaced by various illusions. And, hiding behind these illusions, the last corners of wild nature are destroyed. Temples of Ancient Gods, Places of Power, or refuges. All these phrases are synonyms. All these three names refer to/denote the same objects. The same parts of the locality on planet Earth.
And I think more and more often that what is most important for us now is to pave the path to the ethics of our ancestors. To preserve the meaning-filled inner content of our even smallest deeds. Feed the birds. Build a house for these birds with children. Clean up the trash after yourself in the forest not just for the sake of it, but because it is inappropriate to desecrate the Temple of the Gods. And recognize the handful of grain for the birds as a Gift, a Sacrifice.
On November 1, 2024, we successfully launch the annual project "Help the Birds." Every year we have managed to unite tens of thousands of people from all corners of Russia, and together we made nutritious feeder balls and then placed them in the wild!
This makes it possible to save a large number of wintering birds, giving them a chance to survive! It supports the immune system of the Earth.
This year, we want to try to attract even more people to save wintering birds. Moreover, a section "Our Actions" has been launched on my website, and interactive cards are posted on the main page. These are seasonal projects: winter - saving birds in the Russian Taiga, and then the following mass actions for saving wild nature corresponding to the seasons: spring, summer, and autumn will be launched.
The wheel of the year rolls on, and with its next turn comes a new season. After autumn, winter follows once more. With snows, storms, and blizzards. Feed the small birds in the cold. Give them a chance to survive this winter. Honor your Ancestors and Mother Earth.
© PAVEL PASHKOV
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