One of the things about living close to nature, even the most everyday non-wilderness variety, is that there are always lessons to be learned. That is, if you are open to hearing the messages coming your way. The wood duck had one for me.

IMG_0602_2

First of all, it is a gift to be as intimate as we are with this particular natural world called a pond. The present moment expands outward always following the path of light across the water that surrounds us. It mirrors the sky. It intensifies the light. There is always movement. There are tiny creatures and birds in the trees and there are birds on the water. Some of us know each other. I have named some. I do not cross the line, however, unless there is a crisis- this is a promise I have offered and kept. I think they trust this middle ground of mine. Yet, I worry about them. Never more so than now.

IMG_0303_2

November is such a powerful month of movement across the natural world. It reminds us of the hardships ahead for those that live out of doors. And it reminds us of our own safe privilege. To move forward there has to be a certain faith in the proper order of things. The light and the dark being two faces of the whole. It is as one library patron said a matter of interpretation.

Still, three days now since we have seen the wood duck, two since our injured goose.