Walking. Swan-ful.

Posted on by Live & Learn

6:10 a.m.

Dark. 12° F, feels like Nasty.  Wind cuts through all the layers. Shiver.

I’m driving down Weed Avenue, eyes scan The Cove.

When she’s here, even in the blackest of Nights, there’s no missing that White Coat, those 25,000 feathers, that Beacon.

“Sadness, I need your black White wing.” (PN*)

I drive on, now 500 yards from the park.

There!

I pull off the highway, grab the camera, and approach.

I offer her a soft, short whistle.

She pops her head up, “Hey there Mister, All Good Here.”

Then, she tucks her head back under her wing, and back to sleep.

I pause watching her for a moment, and then glance up at Polaris, shimmering overhead.

Yes, O.K. All good here too.

This World can keep on, keep spinning on its axis.

 

Notes:

35 thoughts on “Walking. Swan-ful.”

  2. You have certainly connected with that swan. How special. Yes, we are all good here, even though the media would like us to think differently.

  13. Ahh…there’s Miss Beauty…all tucked in…until the light of day…glad she knows your whistle…perhaps mutual appreciation.

  14. I’ve got this story about being behind a school bus when it stops to load up a handicapped kid, and for a few moments, the world seems to stop. I would stop for the bus regularly on my way to work while the scene played out and the STOP sign retracted back into the bus

    The story has grown over the years. It used to be about my taxes at work, and what a wonderful world. Then it was about a power greater than ourselves working through our taxes, and the Group Conscious of the world, taking care of the babies and the lame.

    Then one day wondered if the kids on the bus minded that the bus stopped a little longer for this one kid, and if they helped him secure himself on the bus, if they helped him get through the day.

    I was talking about this one morning to a friend at breakfast when another customer overheard me.

    “I work on that bus. You see the driver load him up on the lift, but What You Don’t See Is Me, inside the bus, there to secure him. And yes, the other kids take care of him too, mostly”

    Isn’t it wonderful Dave, the things going on that we aren’t allowed to fully see?

  15. It was supposed to be on your post about the spiritual side of the world that you don’t quite believe in always. Oh well. I really hate trying to blog from my phone!

  16. I grew up off the pond in the park across the street (designed by Fred Law Olmstead firm)
    At times the ducks, the swans would come and lay their eggs under the Tulip tree and the Rhododendron…the nest were usually abandon…though every year they nested on the pond’s shore in brush (old maps show it as Fir Lake) on the island, which was also home to a massive Weeping Willow tree or a bit further in under-story of the Douglas Fir…you can imagine the excitement it was to be a child who would feed the water fowl…I loved sitting in this one tree that had a lower branch that was bent out (like the Native American’s signal trees) on the bank of the pond and watch the ducks & swans…occasionally the pond would freeze over..the ice skaters appeared…I always was concerned for the water fowl that they’d be too cold or hungry when the ice settled in…one time when I was 12 or 13 I went on to the ice at the far end of the pond, fell through a few feet from the bank, managed to get out (it was always scary when someone would fall through where it was deep (they would have to be rescued…in regards to me falling in, (I was by myself) each step along the pathway next tot he pond, to the street in dripping wet clothes… in striped white and blue denim Levis (conductor type with some metal buckles) with wet, thin shirttails…it was so cold, the clothes heavy..I cut across the yard up the two stair onto the porch and through the wide front door, with the French stained glass that graced the entrance to the side of the door and over the top, too… only to be greeted by the oldest sister in disapproval and then the girls started to laugh and say wait until Mom gets home as I ascended up the 27 steps to the bathroom & a hot shower…We also had a Large Weeping Willow that was straight across from the one on the island in the park…I always said they were twins though at least 150 ft away from each other. I loved watching the water fowl waddling…and I would occasionally tease one of the older sisters and say hay “waddles” the pond is across the street…Be assured , the ducks and swans were always loved 🙂 by those at my house…//when I saw this photo with Miss Beauty and the ice I wondered if the ice took you back to you and your younger brother, lacing up the skates and heading out onto the ice?

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