Tuesday amble
Yesterday a friend posted a prayer that seems too dear to let drift away into the ether, so I'm copy-and-pasting it this morning. None of it is mine, least of all the picture of a man so blessed as to be alive and present and faithful and able to pray at the Temple wall in Jerusalem.
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I share this Jewish prayer
She's beautiful!!
She's beautiful!!
May your awakenings wake you up.
And that when you wake up, the day it begins you get excited.
And may the sun's rays that leak through your window in every new dawn never become routine.
And may you have the lucidity to concentrate and rescue the most positive of every person who crosses your path.
And don't forget to taste the food, carefully, although "only" is bread and water.
And may you find sometime during the day, even if it is short and brief, to raise your gaze to the high and thank you, for the miracle of health, that mystery and fantastic inner balance.
And that you manage to express the love you feel for your loved ones.
And may your arms embrace.
And may your kisses kiss.
And may the sunsets surprise you, and never cease to wonder.
And may you arrive tired and satisfied at dusk by the satisfying task done during the day.
And may your sleep be calm, restful, and without startles.
And don't confuse your work with your life, nor do the value of things with its price.
And don't believe more than anyone else, because, only the ignorant don't know that we are nothing but dust and ash.
And don't forget, not for an instant, that every second of life is a gift, a gift, and that, if we were really brave, we would dance and sing for joy in taking awareness of it.
As a tiny tribute to the mystery of life that welcomes us, embraces and blesses us.
And that when you wake up, the day it begins you get excited.
And may the sun's rays that leak through your window in every new dawn never become routine.
And may you have the lucidity to concentrate and rescue the most positive of every person who crosses your path.
And don't forget to taste the food, carefully, although "only" is bread and water.
And may you find sometime during the day, even if it is short and brief, to raise your gaze to the high and thank you, for the miracle of health, that mystery and fantastic inner balance.
And that you manage to express the love you feel for your loved ones.
And may your arms embrace.
And may your kisses kiss.
And may the sunsets surprise you, and never cease to wonder.
And may you arrive tired and satisfied at dusk by the satisfying task done during the day.
And may your sleep be calm, restful, and without startles.
And don't confuse your work with your life, nor do the value of things with its price.
And don't believe more than anyone else, because, only the ignorant don't know that we are nothing but dust and ash.
And don't forget, not for an instant, that every second of life is a gift, a gift, and that, if we were really brave, we would dance and sing for joy in taking awareness of it.
As a tiny tribute to the mystery of life that welcomes us, embraces and blesses us.
Courtesy Harmonizing Your Energy
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Each of us is making our way through the ongoing covid-19 crisis, with our bit of space and Time in life. Which, life itself is interesting and a blessing to have for a while, like love, to have and to hold; definitely as the rector's blessing says, "short" seldom realized until one suddenly looks in the bathroom mirror and sees an octogenarian! You'll find out. At least I hope you will, I certainly pray so, it's a great Time of life.
Here on StAndrewsBay ospreys fly circles above me, their high pitched sounds shrilly calling to each other as I sit outside on 7H porch. Perfect morning, 72°F delightful sea breeze SW 5mph.
That shot above is looking east toward the Tyndall Bridge this morning. The one below is looking south between Davis Point and Courtney Point to Shell "Island" and the Gulf of Mexico. They're pretty much too small to see, but just to the right (west) of Davis Point there's a tug pulling two barges. Just arriving from the Gulf, the tug will rearrange the barges so he's pushing them here in the Bay.
My attention is on the osprey nest at Boulder County Fairgrounds in Longmont, Colorado, where yesterday I watched the camera, backing it up and seeing a male osprey land. Site manager said visiting male and female ospreys started arriving Sunday, and went at it over claiming the nest.
I watched a male come in and light on the nest. He fussed around a bit, then flew off. Soon enough, a female arrived, but the site manager said none of the arrivals so far are the resident birds who have been using the nest since 2003.
This female arrived appearing ruffled and flustered. She looked around at the mess, and before long the male returned clutching a small fish for her,
which, as soon as she saw it she leaned over, grabbed it and started tearing and eating, as he looked on.
Apparently satisfied that his gift had sealed the mating deal, he flew off again, and returned clutching a large piece of cloth best described as a rag, evidently for the 2020 nest. Site manager still saying these don't seem to be the resident birds.
The female looked at the piece of cloth, with apparent approval.
The two of them flew off, and I stopped watching. Folks in the 2020 reassembling Osprey Chat group watched and witnessed as another female shows up, and the two females get into a squabble over the nest while the male, oblivious to the fighting females, starts bringing sticks to start the nest refurbishment. When I quit watching, the ownership of the nest for the 2020 season was still in dispute.
When ospreys migrate in the fall, they leave separately, even days apart, do not stay together, and may not see each other until they meet again at the nest the following spring. Whatever happens, I wish the pair a successful season as in "be fruitful and multiply".
It's been a while, months or maybe a year or two, since I read about this, but as I recall, his bringing her the gift of the fish and her accepting it triggers the start of the season's events, courting, mating, nest-renovating, eggs, hatchlings, fledglings, until fall of the year, when everyone flies away again.
Last year the resident birds had three eggs, all three hatched. Weather was not perfect the first few weeks, cold, wet, snow, the first hatchling crawled up into accumulated snow, couldn't move, and died there. In a day or so the mother bird took the dead baby bird and flew away with it, returning after a bit, a moving event for a human to watch, as I did.
The rest of the 2019 season went well. Fed almost constantly as the father osprey returned with fish from the adjacent pond, called Cattail Pond, the other two little birds ate ravenously, grew and fledged. By fall, they were about the same size as their parents.
These males and females are easy to tell apart, because the male has a bright white chest, the female a "necklace" of brown feathers across her chest.
For anyone who's missing watching sports on television during this canceled season of the covid-19 nightmare, the ospreys are themselves a sport. There are many more ospreys and other bird cams to discover and watch online.
Linked to our parish website, there should be something holy from time to time. The collect (prayer of the day) for next Sunday comes to mind:
The phrase about swift and varied changes of the world certainly speaks loud and clear these days. But this collect comes round every year on the 5th Sunday in Lent, and it always brings to mind, as I've said in prior years, something from my earliest Navy life.
The "detailer", which we called the officer in Washington who decided and made your next duty assignment, was at our Navy school and talking with each of us about where we would be assigned after school graduation a month or so hence.
Weeks earlier, we'd each completed our "preference for duty card" and they'd been sent to the detailer, and now here he was to tell us! I had loved being in Newport, RI for OCS and the month or six-week hospital stay afterward to have my heart murmur examined in detail before the Navy would commission me; then a TDY assignment of a month at a Navy command in Newport while waiting for my next school's class to convene.
I had asked for a destroyer home-ported in Newport. None were available, and the detailer told me I was going to a destroyer in Norfolk. Okay, fine, and worked out beautifully for me career-wise.
Another member of the class had said that he did not want a destroyer, and requested either shore duty or a large ship such as a tender. The detailer told him that this visit was a good opportunity to change his preference for duty card and ask for a destroyer so he could get his first choice.
Because he was going to a destroyer.
Navy logic doesn't make sense to everyone, but after a while, it made perfect sense to me.
Anyway, "to love what you command and desire what you promise" sounds like we're getting it anyway. My octogenarial response might be "I certainly hope so".
RSF&PTL
Tom+