admitting you've got a problem is the first step.

me:
My name is Mary Mikel and I am addicted to birds.
imaginary 12 Step group:
[in unison] Hi, Mary Mikel.



This is how the beginnings of my 12 Step Program of choice would go. Well, actually, you could insert the word "lamps", "chairs", "tables" or "unnecessary objects" for the word "birds" and it would pretty much go the same way.

I must confess it, though...of all my vices, birds would be the hardest habit to kick.

I guess it started early for me. I've got a lot of connections with the bird form. I'm not proud: I'll admit to playing that John Denver/Olivia Newton John song, Fly Away on my record player over and over again.

When I need support or guidance, my grandmother comes to me in the form of a roadrunner. My spirit guide is a raven. I love the sound of the doves and owls that live in our back yard...and even the grackles that perform what my son used to call the "afternoon bird show" in our town.

When I had a hard time getting pregnant and staying pregnant, it was the sparrow who had made a nest for her eggs in my gardening clog that first told me that "this one would stick" - and she came back again when I was pregnant with my second son.

It's ironic, really, because I don't even like to fly, so it's not that I'm wishing to leave the nest, it's just that there's something so magical about birds. These tiny little creatures who can go higher and farther on their wings than we can on our feet. They signal the passing of the seasons when they fly in formation overhead. They give us hope each spring and their nests are some of the most beautiful sculptural forms that I've seen.

There's little more that you need for entertainment than a bird bath and a bird feeder. Those two things make for the best people watching that birds can provide. Truth be told, the more I know of people, the better I like birds.
They may fly in and out of your life, but they are nothing if not consistent.