Be Like the Bird

Woke up at the unGodly hour of 4:30 a.m. this morning and made myself a cup of “sleepy time” tea.  Which really does work by the way.  I finished reading a classic book (written in 1991...which is NOT in the olden days) called A Life in Hand by a wonderful journaler/sketcher named Hannah Hinchman.  I am always inspired when I read through this which I have several times.  Her powers of observation are joyful. 

Anyway.  Then I saw on my art table the teensy little feather that my friend Sharon had recently mailed me...An honest to God real envelope and stamp full of poetry, hand made book marks and then this little feather.  (I seem to be in a mood for feathers right now) as I had just sketched in my journal the enormous turkey feather that we found on a recent walk in the woods.  It is so hollow at the stem you can almost see right through it.  

So then this tiny little feather falls out of the envelope only a day or so after I find the turkey feather.  From a woman whose last name is Feathers.  Julie would call this serendipity.  The universe is sending me a message about birds, feathers, the lightness of birds, OR the freedom to fly is maybe calling to me.  I tend to want to think it's about the “freedom to fly” now (or the courage to do so.)  I feel like my move to Madison is a kind of leap of faith and in doing so had so many endings and beginnings I am slightly overwhelmed.   Victor Hugo’s words came to me right away: 

“Be like the bird who, pausing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing she hath wings.”

Then I remember that my dear English friend, Mary Sollars, would always stick her found feathers upright into the ground when she found one on a walk promptly saying this will improve the weather!  That memory makes me smile. 

So in the wee hours this morning the tiny feather itself (not a drawing of it) got glued into the illuminated journal and the bits of the story behind it, just enough to remind me of the serendipity, written around it with a Zentangle® aura around it.  AND a wee drawing of the book about “noticing” and “recording”.  (Sharon says it is a chickadee feather, by the way.  And Julie says there is a book I should read called When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams.)

I did fall asleep then until almost 8 am!  And now this all brought me round to the new day with a wonderful sunshine just glowing into our eastern windows. Everyone gets messages from the universe it’s just that not everyone hears them.  

Notes from Sycamore Tree House in May.

Ginny