On a very cold morning this new year we discovered a young tit on the floor in our living room. Slipped indoors to his own astonishment. As he looked paralyzed on his cramped toes, I enveloped him carefully with a light towel and brought him outside. There I took him in my folded hands, as he still seemed unable to move. Under this warm pressure his feet got their grip again. As I reopened my hands, he did not make any effort to fly away. With his shining small and very dark eyes he looked at me.

It was so amazing. Whats happening here? Who are you? Who am I? Did we meet before? Slowly I put him down on a garden table and caressed him very gently in his neck feathers. Again, no effort to start up, but still this eternity of interlocking eyes continued. It was stunning for both of us. Then, suddenly he flew up just to land on a bowing twig of an opposite shed nearby. From there the onlooking continued. He was so small and yet so great in his glance that I almost forgot to breathe.

Shall we meet again to be friends? Definitely for sure, we said, as I turned around and he flew away. Back inside in the warm room I could hardly believe that such a meeting had unfolded with such an intensity.