Finding the Way

Spring is back with a passion! Temperatures at 6:30 pm are about 52 degrees with a cool breeze that sways and flutters leaves and branches into a piano player's frenzy. I spent the day outside gardening and monitoring the geese, Ander and Lucy. I chased them away from our vegetable garden--which now contains lettuce, one of their favorite foods--numerous times.

Utter greenness. We plant more and more flowers to bring color into the forest. Even white flowers like lilies of the valley and trillium stand out dramatically against the rich green background. Lupines, one of the local favorites, are currently out in full force so splotches of bright purple and pink echo everywhere.

My TCC practice on the deck was interrupted by Frances's return home from a daylong project. Normally I'd move to a more private area but today I allowed my practice to be interrupted with our brief conversation. As a result I discovered that it was easy to continue my movements as Frances talked. I had no problem staying in sync, counting my repetitions, and maintaining my relaxation and composure.

I also noted that the t'ai chi chih movements have integrated themselves so deeply into my body/mind that I smoothly continued my practice with no effort. During the remainder of TCC practice I recognized the buzz of territorial hummingbirds battling over their feeder and the pumping tail of an Eastern phoebe who watched me from afar.

Which reminds me ... the female phoebe became trapped in our house last night. Frances went out the patio door under the phoebe's nest to retrieve Namaste and, before Frances could close the door behind her, the phoebe had flown inside.

We tried to locate the bird and shoo her back outside with absolutely no luck. So we did the next best thing. It was 10:30 pm. We turned off all the lights except for the outside light by the patio door, we left the patio door wide open, and we went to bed. When we got up this morning, the phoebe was back in her nest incubating her four white eggs.

I believe my suggestion to simply go to bed was a t'ai chi chih moment. We didn't need to escort our phoebe out the door, just trust that given silence and opportunity, she would find her own way....