April 8, 2005

• Things that make me wonder….

  
  

  I am never quite sure how to describe “what I believe.” I am definitely towards the metaphysical, new-age, alternative belief system end of the spectrum. On some levels, I’m a Humanist, on others I’m a Buddhist, on others I might be considered more of a Pantheist. Some of you have seen me use the phrase “Nature is my Church,” and that’s certainly quite fitting. But beside the point….

  
  

  So anyway, for some years I have had an interest in “naturespeak” (for lack of a better word) in the sense that I pay attention to the subtle messages from the Universe, especially as they come to me from the Natural world. Whereas it is by no means my specialty, I have read and studied a fair number of texts on “Animal Spirits” and “Animal Speak,” as it relates to having Totem or Power Animals… and I have some semblance of an idea what some of the “messages” brought by various animals mean. I also have a collection of Zuni tribal animal fetishes. But that’s also beside the point.

  
  

  Back in February, it seemed like a colony of turkey vultures had taken up residence (at least in the mornings) on the back lawn. Sometimes there would be as many as 50 of them; big black birds hopping around on the grass– some of them appearing quite tame, or at least bold enough to come right up to the windows of the sliding glass doors. Vulture is sort-of the “clean up crew” of nature– they clean up dead things.

  
  

  In looking back, it seems like (and this may be stretching the imagination to fit a scenario) the vultures first showed up around the time Raddish the cat had a stroke and spent five days at the vet’s. She came back home, and seemed to be doing OK. Then she died, on March 9th. I didn’t really link Raddish’s death and the vultures– besides, the birds remained after she died. I just figured they liked the back lawn because my redneck neighbor’s fireworks and small arms fire couldn’t touch them here. Anyway, they’d all leave mid-morning, every day, so it didn’t seem like they were on “death watch.” What, of course, I didn’t realize was that there was another “dying thing” in the house, in the form of Ivy the dog. Ivy ended up having to be put to sleep on April 1st, because her bodily functions pretty much had failed.

  
  

  The last time I saw a vulture on the lawn was the morning of April 2nd.

  
  

  Of course, I’m open to the idea that this concided with some cycle change of behavior, or the beginning of nesting season, or something else… but still…

  
  

  Things that make you go “hmmmmm…..”

  
  

  So anyway, yesterday I was looking out my office window, trying to find some kind of inspiration to work on a writing project– and I thought I saw a very large black duck run swiftly across the lawn. I live on a creek, a few 100 feet upstream of a flood control dam, so “lake” is really more appropriate than “creek.” Anyway, the point is that a steady stream of waterfowl is not an unusual sight; in fact that’s one of the things I like about living here– the abundance of wildlife.

  
  

  Something prompted me to get up and go over to another window for a better view. Not a duck, at all. A wild turkey. Now, I live in suburbia. There haven’t been wild turkeys around here in 10-12 years, according to the long-term locals– the surrounding developments have scared them further out in the country. But this was definitely a turkey. I didn’t get very close before it flew off across the creek and into the undergrowth of the greenbelt on the opposite bank.

  
  

  The thing that makes me go “hmmmm” about this, is that it is the third time in the past 12 months I have seen wild turkeys. Twice now, it has been a single bird on the lawn; last fall, I saw a half-dozen of them flying across the street as I entered the neighborhood. Yet, I am surrounded by people who assure me there have been no turkeys sighted here in many years. I appear to be the only one who sees these birds.

  
  

  I am trying to figure out if Turkey has some kind of message for me…. and what it might be.

  
  

   

  • 4:05 pm
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