Bird Droppings March 11, 2013
When leaving a piece is always left behind

“All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another!” Gail Sheehy, American journalist, author

It has been a most interesting couple of days. All weekend was a learning experience with our granddaughters. Each new word and gesture lends to excitement. I sat and watched last night while my oldest son played with Charlie and a puzzle of letters and animals. She knew each letter and the only animals to through her off were a skunk and quail. I was floored when she said iguana for the letter I. Then earlier on Facebook my daughter in-law posted how our granddaughter in North Carolina giggled for the first time. Having been through as a parent so many years ago it is not about having forgotten but watching as a grandparent it is so much more meaningful.
I walked out the door this morning to three deer grazing by the house. All in all really not a surprise as we have had deer since we moved in this house nearly seven years ago. Just recently the pine trees once so thick you could not see ten feet into them were thinned and timbered. Now you can see a hundred feet into the forest and opened alley ways to allow for tree growth are cut along entire section of land. On Sunday as I went to watch a sunrise I saw my first coyote since living out here. I have heard them almost nightly but not seen one. So my far of disturbing the wildlife from the timbering may be somewhat displaced but we shall see. I have not seen any wild turkeys lately.
It has been nearly a year since we were informed our principal was being promoted and going to the county office. This was a significant advancement for him and a great loss for us. As I looked around my room and wonder what would it be like to move to another room or another school and many of us were going through this as we are wondering who will be taking his place and with class size increases whose jobs are safe and whose are not. As it went we got our preferred choice and he has done a great job since coming into position.
As so many teachers do each year I am hoping I will be doing what I am this year and can stay in my room. I recall boxing up nearly nine years of photos and moving many gigs of data to a portable hard drive from computers around the room last summer. I had to move my eland head. It had been situated on a wall among former student’s photos. The eland is a head and shoulder mount and very big. I raised him from a two year old and when he died a good friend said he would be impressive mounted and well he looks pretty impressive, the largest African antelope. He was six foot at the shoulder and 1400 pounds when he was alive. My numerous aquariums and my pets had to be moved as well.
Friday was a quiet one only a few students came through my room. The mornings have been strange clear at four in the morning and then sort of clouding up as the sun comes up and then clearing later in the day. At least a bit of a contrast to the tremendous amount of rain we have had the past few weeks. Yesterday I had sort of fudged a bit for dinner using left over grilled chicken and a few fried pieces making leftover chicken and rice. As I was coming into our driveway late yesterday a large hawk sailed over the house. At first I thought it was a buzzard but the movement was more hawk like and as I pulled in the hawk settled on a pole directly in front of me. A big red tailed hawk just sitting about eighty feet from me watching and gazing at me through my windshield. As I opened the door to the car he flew off.
I often wonder about such coincidences in life. What if I had been thirty minutes sooner no hawk or ten minutes later again no hawk. I by chance was in a window of time on the same wave length at least for a moment as the hawk. Maybe it was the fact I was thinking about so many Native American ideas and teaching about the sacred in life and was excited talking to several old friends who are teaching and or working at the University level in that area. Maybe it was simply coincidence the hawk sat and watched me.
As I write this morning being too lazy to get up earlier hopefully soon my sinus issues and gas heat will be turned off when I can turn electric air conditioning back on. I had forgotten my decongestant last night and getting up was rough. I did manage a few moments outside watching the clouds move around the little dipper an interesting arrangement literally six lines of clouds in a circle around the constellation and quickly dissipated along with a faint smile of the moon again a few minutes later or earlier and I would have missed it.

“You have noticed that everything as Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round….. The Sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours….Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.” Black Elk, Oglala Sioux Holy Man 1863-1950

I have used this quote many times borrowing from the wisdom of Black Elk including at my father’s funeral and my youngest son’s wedding. It has been many years since I described myself as a circle, alone unopened in a short poem I wrote one night sitting alone in my apartment in Pennsylvania. As I am sitting listening to the running water from my room’s tanks and mountain music from Goose Creek Sympathy it is a peaceful feeling wandering through memories and thinking about where and when and how. Which path should I choose to walk today, tomorrow and the day after? What new trail or should I stay secure in the old.

“What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected. You must teach the children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of your grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. This we know, the earth does not belong to man, and man belongs to the earth.” Chief Seattle

I sat back and thought about my hawk yesterday and how we are all intertwined on this globe, the hawk and I my students at school each an aspect of who we are and why we are here. I look forward to the journey today as always and one day way off when a destination does approach it will be when it is. But for today I am occupied with the journey please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your hearts and to always give thanks namaste.

Wa de (Skee)
bird