Abigail (Abby) Marsh

Perhaps because that acute fear response we get in times of disaster actually motivates us.

It gives us the sort of urgency to help other people just the same way it gives us the sense of urgency about helping ourselves.

This is an incredible story.

A couple of years ago on a Florida beach, a riptide formed and sent two young boys, their parents and their grandmother, way out to sea.

And of course, riptides are very dangerous.

People drown on them all the time.

But what happened this particular day was that 70 strangers spontaneously formed a human chain out into the water that extended almost all the way to the drowning family.

And then a woman named Jessica Simmons and her husband swam out to the end of the human chain, rescued the family, and got them all back to safety one by one.

So it was a rush hour, a busy morning, and I had just returned from dropping my child off at school on foot.

And as I was walking down a very busy boulevard, I encountered a man standing on the side of the street with his hands cupped in front of him, but he was looking around into the trees around him.

And it was such strange behavior.

I had to stop and ask what was going on.

And he lowered his hands to reveal a fuzzy little baby blue jay crouched in them, its little black eyes glittering up at us.

Very calm, interestingly.

And he said, I saw this little baby bird out in the road, and I had to go and get it, but I have to go to work.

I don't know what to do.

And I said, well, I'll take over.

And so he dumped the little bird into my hands, and I –

took over scanning the trees around me, looking to see if there were any parents nearby that I could leave the baby with.

And there was just nothing.