When my son was tiny, he decided there weren’t enough birds in our yard. He thought and thought about different ways to attract birds. We had to discard most of his ideas, because we didn’t have any money to buy anything, even materials for birdhouses and feeders. All morning, I watched him rack his brain, thinking up ways to attract birds.

Finally he had an inspiration. He would make a sign so the birds would know that our yard was a prime landing spot.

He got out a sheet of paper and worked diligently. He asked me how to spell some words. After several discarded pieces of paper, he had his sign.

Then, he went out into the yard and found a long stick. He taped his sign to the stick, stuck it in the yard, backed off a few yards, and waited.

After a half hour or so had passed, he came back into the house for a sandwich, and asked me to come out and admire his sign. I did.

I looked at it, and I looked at his beaming freckly face and his bright red hair almost blinding in the sunlight. I said, “It’s a wonderful sign. But sweetheart, you’ve taped it to the stick upside-down.”

He gave me a look of exasperated loving patience. “Of course it is, Mommy. That’s so the birds can read it from up in the sky.”

What did the sign say? It said “Worms live here.” Upside down, so the birds could read it from the sky.

Worms live here.

Well, if you were a bird, flying in the air and hungry, and you looked down and saw a sign advertising free worms, wouldn’t you stop?

Worms live here. Upside down so the birds could read it from the sky.

I can barely think of this memory without tears. I love it that much.