Of all the birds, Stalking Wolf respected the chickadee the most, even more than the hawk or the owl... We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay... But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of his indomitable spirit.
The exuberance of the chickadee made him our idol...
A chickadee doesn't look like a good bet for survival; you could close your hand with one in the palm almost without hurting him. There are better fliers; swallows have more grace and all the soaring birds are more spectacular. But nobody flies with more reckless abandon than the chickadee, and nobody flies with more delight.
The chickadee lives by joyous faith in living...
The TRACKER (as told by Tom Brown, Jr. to William Jon Watkins)
My third initial reaction to the summary of my forecast... is despair. Fear of losing it all... this is not fear for loss of my own well-being. I am comfortable now, and will be long dead when crisis strikes. It is more intense anxiety about the fact that humanity will voluntarily destroy the wonderful world as we know it... In short, I am scared on behalf of what it has taken nature hundreds of millions of years to create...... Piping Plovers...
