Nature Heals

“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

‘Spring Poems’, watercolor abstract

Spring has arrived with a bang in NE Michigan. Migrant birds continue to show up each day and I have been enjoying the wonderful display of American Woodcock nightly behind our house. While sitting on my ‘timberdoodle watching log’ I’m treated to so very much ear candy: chorusing frogs, yodeling Common Loons, trilling Song Sparrows and so much more. Last night at dusk, a large bat put on quite an aerial display as it gleaned midges and mosquitos over a swampy area. I tried (and failed miserably) to get a video, but they are so very fast in their erratic flight.

I’ve had much more success with videotaping a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers that have been excavating a nest cavity in a very tall poplar tree on our property for the past two weeks. The nest cavity is at least 65 feet up, and we can see it easily from our front door. The Pileateds seem very tolerant, but I do not approach them very closely, as I want this nest to be successful. They have excavated other cavities in past years, but abandoned them for whatever reason. One of them is being used by a pair of Northern Flickers this year though, so all of that work was not in vain. The female has been doing most of the work and is at the tree from sunup until sundown.

Mojo continues to do well, and is raring at the bit to be let off the leash to run. Soon, I hope. I will be starting a regimen of medicated baths in hopes it will help his cystic skin condition as soon as his incisions fully heal. If nothing else, he always enjoys bathtime.

I had an appointment with my radiologist yesterday, who was very pleased that my radiation burns have healed so well. He gave me the green light to continue with my treatments and it was a good feeling to walk into the cancer center knowing that I would not have to be radiated that day. The anxiety that was visible on the many faces waiting to be seen was so familiar and my heart went out to each of them. Cancer is a territory with no certainties, but in my experience it is also a territory filled with so much compassion and understanding. Cancer (and any life threatening illness) can and will rearrange ones’ priorities so very quickly and you realize on a primeval level that if you have the time to watch a Pileated Woodpecker work on a nest for her future youngsters, then that was time so very well spent. It is life-giving. It welcomes you in to the place where everything is so beautifully connected. Where all life matters, with the poignant realization that all life is deserving of compassion and grace.
Nature heals.

Peace.