Omens

Eastern Screech-Owl Megascops asio
(I didn’t even know the ISO on my camera went as high as 16,000...) 

  Many cultures view owls as bad omens. I don’t. I gravitate to the views of the few traditions that see owls as harbingers of transition – forces that can guide you during difficult times in your life. It’s fair to say that most people on the planet are living through some difficult times in their lives at this point in this anno multum horribilus, 2020.

  Tonight I needed some air, so I went out onto the front porch and sat in a director’s chair with a morale beverage. Fat flakes of snow cloaked the deserted streets, and it was cold enough to chill my legs through jeans. Fifteen minutes into my zone-out, a stubby bird zipped overhead and landed in a tree ten feet above where I was sitting. Owl! I crept inside, and the bird was mercifully still there when I returned with my birding optics. I got the binos up, and witnessed an Eastern Screech-Owl finishing off a small rodent.

  As I watched the bird eat, the flaming wad of barbed wire that has smouldered deep in my stomach for weeks went out with a cool hiss. By the time the owl flew off to a metallic perch, the stressball had been replaced by those old familiar birding butterflies of joy. That feeling when your mind goes blank, and the screeching behind your eyes quiets, as you observe another creature doing its damndest to persevere. A timely reminder that there are forces out there that may seem smaller than us, but are in fact, much bigger.

  I’m rambling. But this was a good omen. Spring will come, and then summer will. (Is that from a movie?)