Where

Yesterday, as Jack and I were walking, I heard what I initially thought might be a large chicken.  I wondered if perhaps it had managed to get out of its yard.  I could not see it but it sounded close.  The owner of the house where I thought the chicken might reside came out, appearing to be getting ready to go for a run.  He did not seem concerned at all about a possible AWOL chicken.  I then see movement high in a large pine tree.  Jack and I move closer (I am grateful he is not a dog given to barking).  No, not a chicken but two crows fussing over one another. They had much to say to one another, but they were speaking differently than the crows I often see out and about, and that was why I was confused.  I think I was witnessing them in their home tree. They repeatedly touched one another's beaks as they advised each other of their morning's activities. I appreciate that birds talk to one another as much as they do. They enliven my walks and remind me that we are woven together in so many ways.  Trees, crows, sunshine, a woman on a walk with her dog. We are all communicating, in our own sacred language, God's love.  

   

Yesterday, I also came across a book that I have not read in quite some time:  Anam Cara, A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O'Donohue.  In it, I found the following passage where he writes of the human body. This morning as I reflect on his wisdom, I think of all the bodies, human and otherwise, that exist in this world.  What is this world but an incarnation of God?  I cannot think of it as otherwise.  

The human body is beautiful. It is such a privilege to be embodied. You have a relationship to a place through the body. It is no wonder that humans have always been fascinated by place. Place offers us a home here; without place we would literally have no where. Landscape is the ultimate where; and in landscape the house we call home is our intimate place... Your body is the home of your soul on earth.*   

    

Last night Tyler and I dined on the first of the summer corn, lima beans, and a tomato salad.  I was grateful to be home. I was grateful to have a body.  I was grateful for God. 

   

*Anam Cara, A Book of Celtic Wisdom, Perennial, 2004, p. 44-45.  

  

I do not have a photograph of the crows, but this Datura, beautiful, yet poisonous, resides just down the street from them.  They are neighbors.