Sometimes, You Gotta' Scratch

  

Remember when you were little, and you stepped into a red ant bed running around in the yard or playing hide-and-seek ? (Yes, I'm over 50!) Late at night, after the bath, you were sitting on the floor watching "The Amazing Kreskin" (I think that's how you spell it.) and the red bumps raised up in front of your very eyes and became little white bumps. You started to pick at the tops of the little blisters, and without warning a terrible itch just started crawling in your skin and you just had to scratch it. As soon as you started digging into the already irritated bites, a grown up voice came from one or both parents that said, "Don't scratch that. It'll get infected." After that  you made clandestine tiny swipes at the bites, but you didn't do any real scratching until you were alone in  your room, under the sheets. Then you were free to scratch. The worst thing I remember about an itch like that is that scratching only beget more scratching, and those things really did get infected! What's the message here? I don't know for sure, but I know this, sometimes, you just gotta' scratch!

Birds

We were pulling into the driveway this evening after having dinner with Nik for her 30th birthday when I noticed two small boys and a young woman gazing up the oak tree in our yard by the road. I parked the car and walked down the driveway to ask what they were seeing; the young woman replied,  "That bird up there. He looks like someones pet. He just flew up there." I looked up, and there was a beautiful cockatiel looking down at us. I had a cockatiel named "Bud" once, and he loved to be talked to, so I said,"Hello. Hello. Hello," with the same high pitch voice each time to create a repetitive sound. The colorful bird bent his head back and forth listening intently. Then, he flew down to the garbage can next to me. I put out my hand, and he stepped right on to it and went immediately up my arm to my ear for my earring. I could tell the young woman and the boys wanted the bird, so I passed it gently to her to take home. She said she would put up signs in the neighborhood to see if someone owned the bird;if her mother would not let her keep it, she told me she would bring it back to me.

I did not take a picture of the bird, and the pictures of birds in this blog are not that bird. All the same, they are birds, and birds are amazing creatures. I'm not obsessive about watching birds, but I am very much aware of them in my surroundings. Today, I felt tired and a bit harried after working long hours in the yard. I walked to the back to throw away more yard trash when I spotted an osprey soaring above the field behind the house. It's effortless motion stopped me in my tracks, and I felt an instant of calm. Birds can be annoying because they do poop in places that are sometimes inconvenient like on cars, laundry or shoulders, but I can't imagine the immense void in my life if they were gone. Thank you God, for the birds.

Green

What if it weren't green? What would the repercussions of that creative decision be? On the cusp of Easter with a full moon at our backs, we can look at a fresh new world tomorrow morning and be reminded of renewal, life, growth and vitality. It's called green. It's in the bushes, grasses, trees, and vines. It infuses our eyes and then our thoughts with the word, smell and feel of spring. It's green. But what if it weren't green? What else could it possibly be? Green, my friends, is the creative work of perfection.