Things Aren’t Always Black and White – Or What They Seem!
Thoughts are like airplanes flying in the air. If you ignore them, there is no problem. If you pay attention to them, you create an airport inside your head and permit them to land! ~ St. Paisios of Mt. Athos
It was a dark and stormy morning and I desperately needed a coffee. Deciding to take out the kitchen garbage first, I blundered bleary-eyed into our patio, noticing the fence lined with numerous raucous, cawing crows à la Hitchcock.
Then. In unison. As if someone had pushed a giant mute button, they stilled.
The alarming hush made me pause. Putting the garbage bag down slowly, I carefully reached back around the corner to grab my cell phone and snapped a picture. Oddly, they remained roosting, silently in place, with patient expectation.
Attempting to lighten the moment, I wished them a good morning. No response. My next verbal greeting: “Hey dudes, what’s up?” was met with cold, corvid disdain. Apparently I was a crashing bore, and I sensed great communal disappointment on their part. While some cocked their heads curiously at my voice, others fluffed their feathers indignantly, however… all surveyed me with intelligent yet suspicious, beady eyes.
“WHAT!?” I chuffed aloud to their mini congress. Silently they watched me unfazed from the fence, eavestroughs and boulevard telephone lines. I watched them back intently. Finally, irritated, I blurted out, “You guys are SO weird.” Unnerved, I buried my imagination when observing a small anxious flutter start in my stomach, so I crossed myself. What are they waiting for, I wondered? Why so many?
Taking a deep breath with a new and comforting whatever attitude, I trotted musingly over to the garbage can and deposited the bag – contemplating all the while on the exciting choice of Columbian over a Costa Rican Coffee Pod. Deciding instead on dark espresso, my thoughts flitted associatively to a coworker who had a super smart pet crow, that lived for 25 years, and which also brought home shiny gifts for his human. I returned to the patio reminiscing how the Old Testament Prophet Elijah was miraculously fed by the ravens. Such amazing creatures I pondered, until a NEW and deafening cacophony of cawing (from next door) shattered my thoughts.
Standing on my tiptoes, I hesitantly and cautiously peered through the fence slats.
Their flock had multiplied exponentially. Crows were everywhere. This was a murder of crows! On the cars lining the street… Bobbing on the boulevard… teetering on tree branches and telephone pole lines.
Word was out, but I never got the memo… And my next door neighbour (with a massive smile of joy), fed the crows from a huge burlap sack of crusts and nuts.
Mystery solved.
It was a dark and stormy morning. I skulked back inside, desperately needing my (one) coffee even more so now …. and feeling pretty silly.