#10: Worth it! A Sunday Roundup

A pigeon arrives + a curated collection of my favourite finds this week.

Welcome to our weekly Worth it! Sunday Roundups — a perk of paid membership, but free today (yay!) to all subscribers as a thank you for being here and to celebrate our first roundup of the year (and because I have a fun pigeon story). Consider becoming a paid subscriber to receive upcoming Worth it! Roundups and other perks.

Happy Sunday, friend!

Photo by Lenstravelier on Unsplash

Sometimes when I sit down to write my intro for Worth it! I have nothing to say.

I scan the past week searching for something funny or interesting or noteworthy to tell you about before we jump into the curated section below, highlighting other people’s interesting lives, thoughts or things of note.

Some days it’s hard to find anything worthy of your attention.

Today isn’t that day.

Because I have things to say and funny stories to share. Well, one story really.

It’s about a pigeon. And it’s worth it

For those not experiencing the polar vortex that is the Canadian prairies, it’s been cold. Like, cry tears that turn into icicles kinda cold. The kind of cold that makes you wonder if your brain cells have frozen and you’ve lost significant intelligence because why else would you live here, willingly, kinda cold. 🥶

But life goes on.

Schools stay open. Soccer games get played. Sidewalks get shovelled. We do our best to bundle up and wait for the weather to turn (happening tomorrow we hope).

Over at our house, the two dogs are doing their best to not annoy us with their stuck-inside-the-house-boredom. They run outside to pee, doing the puppy paw dance across the yard, only to run back in the house 30 seconds later. Then they beg for endless tummy rubs and tug-of-war sessions to entertain them because even the laziest dog can only sleep 23 of 24 hours.

Yesterday however, their boredom was interrupted by a pigeon.

Because while I was at my daughter’s soccer game, a visitor arrived.

At first, my husband assumed the faint tapping was the leaky kitchen faucet we needed to get fixed. Then he thought it was ice or snow dripping from the house. Finally, after it continued for a while, he went to our back sliding door to investigate (with the dogs following curiously behind him).

He looked outside at our back deck, not seeing anything of significance, until a flapping motion caught his attention.

Perched on the door frame was a pigeon.

A cold pigeon, who moments ago had pecked on our door multiple times, hoping beyond hope that someone…anyone would open up and let him in.

Feeling sorry for the little guy who was clearly cold and distressed, Gord opened the door a bit. As the warmth of the house air surrounded the bird, he flapped his wings and got a little closer.

Gord grabbed a straw shopping bag and propped it up on its side. The pigeon took the opportunity to jump inside and as Gord turned the bag right-side up, he tucked right into the bag’s corner and settled in.

As you can imagine, my husband was now holding a shopping bag inside the house with a very cold pigeon and no idea what to do next.

The dogs were equally confused (and curious), but the bird seemed quite content to cozy up in the bag and enjoy a break from the frigid temps.

More than 10 minutes later, thinking the pigeon had probably warmed up enough to be set free, Gord opened the door and the bag and waited.

Nothing.

This bird had no desire to leave the warmth or confines of our house for the freedom of the arctic air outside.

And that’s when I got the text.

As I was standing along the sidelines of my daughter’s soccer game, while the stand-in ref was yelling at our coach and me (another day, another story), I felt my phone buzz. After she was done yelling, I opened it to see this message from my husband.

Ummm. Bit of a dilemma. This little guy was bumping against the patio door. Opened it a bit to check on him and let some warm air on him. He climbed in a bag. But was rushed to get R to soccer. So I put him in this cage. He’s on the dining room table. Be careful with Bear [dog] as he’s awfully curious about him.

Right, I thought. It’s minus 40 and I’ve got a pigeon on my dining room table to come home to. Naturally.

Thirty minutes later, M and I were home from soccer and taking in the bird. He was awake, quiet and just chilling in the cage. Gord had laid down paper towel, grabbed a teeny tiny little dish for water and there were a few small bread chunks not yet consumed.

Ignore my Christmas decorations that still need to be put away. It’s been a busy January!

And in case you’re wondering, as everyone I’ve told this story to has, how we came to own a birdcage, even though we’ve never owned a bird, well it’s another layer to a story that you just can’t make up.

As luck would have it, more than 10 years ago, my Dad, in his ongoing attempt to gift the most eclectic items,¹ gave us a boujee birdcage for as a Christmas gift. And me, being the kind of person who feels guilty getting rid of gifts, even useless boujee birdcages I don’t particularly like, kept it and perched it atop one of our bookcases.

Turns out, it wasn’t useless after all. A decade later, it would provide comfort, warmth and protection for a pigeon during a Calgary cold snap.

The story gets less exciting from here, but I’m sure you’re wondering what happened next in the squab saga.

After a call to our local pet hospital, they confirmed that they would take in an ‘exotic’ animal (pigeons are exotic?) and would ensure he’d get picked up by Calgary Wildlife (the only place in the city that cares for pigeons, I learned later) to be assessed and cared for.

I carefully put the boujee birdcage in a cardboard box and dropped him off at the front desk of the Fish Creek Pet Hospital, reassuring him on the car ride over that he’d continue to stay safe and warm.

[My husband was surprisingly sad to come home from R’s soccer to an empty birdcage. He’d already grown attached. Lol]

I’ve since learned that pigeons are smart animals, with excellent problem-solving skills (that house looks warm, I’m cold, let’s knock and see if they might let me in for a bit). Somehow he must have known that he pecked on the glass door of a family that will go to great lengths to save a spider, dragonfly or bumblebee should they find their way in with no clear exit.

As much as we considered keeping the little guy for a day or so until he warmed up, the prospect of a wild pigeon freaking out at 2am should he finally become coherent and warm enough to realize he was trapped in some artsy-fartsy birdcage, felt, well…risky.

I truly hope he’s now safe and warm, waiting out this cold snap before he can get back to doing whatever it is pigeons do.

And I have a good story to tell.

Alright, on to this week’s Worth it! Sunday roundup.

In this issue of Worth it!

• 🗞️ Worth Reading

• 🎧 Worth Listening to

• 👩‍🍳 Worth Eating

• 🧐 Worth Thinking About

🗞️ Worth Reading

— Why you won’t find me doing anything in January via

Annie Scott

(Oh, I feel this, especially in these temps).

— In the category of not surprised but so disheartening, Why Canadian Politics Is Still Unsafe For Female Politicians (I’ve witnessed this first hand via clients and friends who work in local and provincial politics)

— Loved this piece, Both Joyful and Killjoy, by

Alicia Kennedy

— 100 tiny changes to transform your life: from the one-minute rule to pyjama yoga. My personal faves include: #11 Following the “one-minute rule,” #15 Rescuing trapped bees (or pigeons, but I also have a story about bees and a bee highway we made out of an old vacuum hose to help them escape our home), #33 Keeping lists of what I’ve read (see here), #41 No longer saying yes when my gut says no and #81 Acknowledging that my body is a work tool.

— “But the quest for a quiet life is really about attention, and how to direct it. It’s about intellectual and emotional energy, and where to expend it.” For 2024, how about living a truly quiet life? via

Susan Cain

— You might be special, but not any more special than everyone else. Shattering the illusion of uniqueness bias in leadership.

— Simple, but solid advice via

Austin Kleon

— This is equal parts inspiring and heartbreaking, and despite the fact that my kids are long past picture books, I’ll be buying Tom The Troll Has Been Blocked on February 6th when it comes out. via

Connie Schultz

And ICYMI, here’s what I read in 2023 along with a book tracker (for paid subscribers) here:

🎧 Worth Listening to

— It’s Dry January time for many, and this podcast explored changing trends in drinking, particularly among younger demos. Turns out booze isn’t so cool anymore (a good thing!).

While not a listen, this post pairs well with the podcast, as it addresses the inherent problem with declaring ‘Dry January’ for social media likes.

— Another pod worth listening to as you set your intentions for the duration of 2024. Start by figuring out what brings you joy.

— And finally, I’ve been enjoying this playlist while I’m working. Hopefully you will too.

👩‍🍳 Worth Eating

I did not make this cheesecake for New Year’s Eve as originally planned, but one day I’ll make it because it looks like heaven in a bite. I’m not sure of much, but I am sure this is worth eating.

And adding these into the meal prep rotation because during the cold, dark days of winter, a little flavour pop makes all the difference.

🧐 Worth Thinking About

Felt timely for a new year…

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.

~Albert Einstein

Wishing you well this week,

Steph

1. Gifts have included: a mini bedazzled pink guitar, a slingshot (real one) for my 7-year-old son, an iPad mini for my 3-year-old daughter, a set of climbing wall hand holds (for our ceiling?!), a purse and multiple sweaters that screamed anything but me…and a birdcage. He went out of his way to give the quirkiest gift imaginable for reasons I’ll never quite understand.