Richard Littledale
Richard Littledale
radio microphone
BBC Radio 2Sarah Kennedy Show
Pause for Thought
Richard Littledale: Series 10, Number 2
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Monday 27 July 2009

Isn't it funny how we invest nature with personality? I'm a ridiculously early riser, and so I'm often looking out at the garden over my first cup of tea as the world wakes up. When other people are sensibly tucked up in bed, I'm down there watching the sky change colour. Almost every morning, my day is brightened by the arrival of my cocky little friend, the robin. With his bright red breast puffed out to greet the day, his head cocked intelligently on one side, and a sparkle in his coal-black eyes - it does me good to see him.

Of course, he hasn't come to see me at all. I'm sure he just happens to be on his rounds in our garden at that particular moment. I suppose it's just possible that he flies in because he sees me moving about and hopes I might throw some crumbs out for him - but probably not. If I were a gardener, it's much more likely he would have called in deliberately. After all - a gardener means digging, and digging means freshly turned soil with rich pickings for my little friend.

There I go again. He's not my friend - he's just a robin. But we love to feel at one with the world around about us, don't we? That's what St Francis of Assisi was getting at all those years ago when he talked about 'brother Sun' and 'sister moon' and called the birds and fishes his brothers and sisters. It might all sound a bit twee, but it was a way of saying that every creature who shares the planet is connected together. Centuries before global warming and climate change were invented , he was talking about treating the earth and its creatures as if they were part of the family. Don't use them, he was saying - cherish them. Perhaps if people had listened to him then, we wouldn't be in such a pickle now! He was taking the Bible's age old wisdom about 'loving your neighbour', and applying it right across the spectrum of creation.

I suppose if global warming continues we'll lose all kinds of different species from the British Isles, just as we've already done with certain species. So for now I'll settle for a milky sunrise and a bog standard robin and be thankful for what I've got.

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© BBC 2009
This talk by Richard Littledale was first broadcast as BBC Radio 2's
breakfast time "Pause for Thought" during the Sarah Kennedy show.
It is reproduced here by permission of the BBC.