Scrap of Valor

I love little chickadees.  The title of this painting comes from a line in an Emerson poem.  He (Emerson) is walking in the woods and a chickadee comes and sings its little song and makes tracks in the snow and brushes his arm.  And even though the chickadee is tiny, it thrives in the freezing cold and still sings a merry tune and fairly dances through the trees. Here are a few lines within the poem:

Here was this atom in full breath,

Hurling defiance at vast death;

This scrap of valor just for play

Fronts the north-wind in waistcoat gray

If that doesn’t make you want to befriend the chickadee, I don’t know what would.

The chickadee symbolizes faithfulness, adaptability and joy.  They are fearless and resilient.