Archive | Spirit Matters

The Church of the Empty Nest

ruby rose and chicksThe dove family took off from our fire escape the day before yesterday. That morning, Grace and I rushed to the window first thing as had become our ritual. But only Sweet Baby Blue, the late bloomer of the roost, was waiting for us. I suspect he’d been dispatched to say goodbye and thank you, for he perched on the rail with an erect bearing that made him look very grownup. He looked straight at us, and I felt Gracie straighten accordingly in my lap. Then we all froze. Grace’s green gaze, my green gaze, the dove’s dark, bottomless gaze: It suddenly became a big moment. Continue Reading →

Venus Approaches

The_Birth_of_Venus_by_William-Adolphe_Bouguereau_(1879)

July approaches, and peonies still preside on my bedside table though their season used to end in May. I chalk it up to the unseasonably mild weather, and complain not.

The baby doves on my fire escape are not babies anymore but also are still hanging out, peep-peep-peeping while their mother fusses over them like all the other Brooklyn mommies. Every morning as I drink my coffee I watch her nag them into flying a little further while their father observes from on high. Grace watches too, ears flattened, a burr forming low in her throat. Twice I’ve had to snatch her mid-air lest she hurl at them through the screen window; she seems to have located her predatory instincts quite nicely, thank you very much. Continue Reading →

This Is Not a Rug

not a pipeIt never ceases to amuse me that permakitten Grace adores having the rug being pulled out from under her. Literally. Once a morning, she rumples my throw rug and then sprawls upon it, belly up, eyes slitted. When I slooowwwly slide her off to straighten the rug out, she purrs with the greatest satisfaction. Sometimes she even lets me drag her around on it first, as if she were lying upon a sled. Or a throne, come to think of it. Whatever her intent, this action impresses me. Living metaphors always do.

"All, everything I understand, I understand only because I love."
― Leo Tolstoy