The legend of the red bird
- col-teri-stein
- September 6, 2023
- 703
In the past month or two, I’ve been seeing a lot of cardinals in our backyard — in particular a pair of cardinals. The male is a bright-red color while the female is more grayish with some red highlights here and there.
I was feeling happy about it because, as everyone knows, a visit from a cardinal is a sign of a bright future. And experts, that’s right, experts believe cardinals also can be a spiritual messenger sent by deceased loved ones to let you know they can feel your love and to send you love. Cardinals let you know everything is OK and your loved ones in heaven will be watching over you.
We have been missing an important and extremely fun to be around family member for the past year and a half. She used to collect cardinal figurines and other cardinal-themed items. We have saved a few pieces of the collection to remember her.
So seeing the birds in our backyard was magical. I was getting the warm fuzzies. I even read a story one time about a woman who lost her husband. They had discussed signs of the afterlife before he passed. A few days later, she went outside for a walk, and this cardinal would not leave her alone. It flew around her and even landed on her hand. She knew it was a sign from beyond.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to put it together: Angels have wings, and cardinals have wings.
In my short retail career of about three years working at a consignment shop, we noticed everything that was cardinal related would sell. People would even ask if we had any merchandise with cardinals on it in stock. If we didn’t, they often left without buying anything. We encouraged our consigners to bring in more cardinals.
A little internet research provided some more interesting facts about cardinals. The birds represent freedom because they are free in every sense. They can walk on the earth, swim in the water — I should double check this fact; it only appeared one place, and until I see a cardinal swim, I’m not going to believe it — and they can fly in the air — we’ve all seen that.
They symbolize eternal life, representing the link between heaven and earth. The brilliant red color on the male birds can symbolize love, passion, tradition and courage. The birds have a bold, passionate nature, and they typically mate for life.
In general, red-colored birds symbolize good health, with red being the color of our life blood. They are associated with happiness, joy and strength.
These new to the neighborhood birds were surely a sign, reaching out with love and reassurance, a positive and optimistic sign.
I was just about to tell my husband Joe about our good fortune when I saw Mrs. Cardinal land on the side of the cat food bowl that was sitting on top of the picnic table. She ducked her head in and pulled out a delicious chunk of kibble. Off she flew only to return to the bowl a short time later.
I decided to keep my mouth shut.
A few days later, Joe said, “You better bring that bowl in when the cat isn’t out there because there’s a couple cardinals eating the cat’s food.”
I acted surprised.
Well, I’d like to keep seeing these little harbingers of joy hang around, but their job is to eat insects. And if my job was to eat insects, I’d want to eat cat food too.
Still, you can’t tell me they aren’t a reassuring sign from above. I’m not going to believe it. And if all it takes is a little extra cat food to keep them here, well, that food bowl is staying out.