221.366 - 2016 project and storks

every day in 2016, write a sentence or a paragraph or a poem that appreciates

storks

as well as I know, I have seen a stork or a set of storks one, two, maybe five times in my life.  I'm pretty sure that I first heard that storks brought babies.  if I remember correctly, I listened disbelievingly as the lady told me that, then she smiled and winked, and I knew that was one of those things grownups told children.  hmpf.  I think I looked up storks in _The Book of Knowledge_ and found a bunch of words I'd have to ask my granddaddy about, but I found pictures too.  I remember studying those pictures and wondering why grownups made up such ridiculous stories.  I must've pestered my granddaddy something fierce, since one day he packed up me and my sister and brother into his car and took us to a huge enclosed space that protected the birds from humans with bars, wire mesh, and barbed wire.  we're a tough bunch to keep out.  inside, storks, flamingos, and other birds waded and ate, and whatever else beautiful birds do while humans gawk at them.  still if I remember correctly, he took us through an industrial area, and pointed out a bunch of sticks and straw on top of a chimney and told us that was a stork's nest.  I didn't know whether he kidded me or not,  He also told me - us - that in Holland, people considered it good luck when a stork built a nest at the top of their chimney.  I later read that in a book that had no reason to support one of my granddaddy's yarns, so it may be true.  in some other book, I read that storks led children who were lost in the forest back to their home towns.  I had a tough time with that one.  in forests where I had been there was no sky, or almost no sky.  where in the hell did the kids see the storks?  or the storks see the kids?    sometime I learned that storks fled to Egypt for the winter, where they were considered sacred, then in the spring flew back to all of Europe.  Trying to confirm that later, I could only confirm the reappearance in Europe.  but the collection of all this lore is that somehow, storks became important to humans, and we talk about them, make up stories about them, hold superstitions about them.  so welcome, storks, to my house of appreciations.  enjoy your stay.