The brilliance of Christmas lights twinkle throughout the house. The smell of fresh pine from our trees mixes with the scent of fresh baked pies and turkey.  I hear laughter from the basement and the sound of dice from a new game hitting the table. My heart is at peace!  It has been a beautiful few days, savoring time with our family, reconnecting with friends, and celebrating the gift of Christ.   The house is warm, inviting and seems to sigh with contentment.  The windows frame the peaceful flight of intricate snowflakes as they drift flake after flake to the ground.  The day has waxed and waned from exciting games to contentedly watching movies.  My heart swells and I smile listening to my 3 boys chatting with each other.  Ally dog wanders around at one time on a lap, another on the couch or snuggled up on the bed.  Everyone is home and her life is content.  As the winter storm blankets the house I reflect on the day, from the sound of my oldest sneaking around, ankles popping at the wee hours of the morning, to the smiles and appreciation as everyone opens gifts, sharing a wonderful supper, to the laughter as we play a fast-paced game of Slam.  We are blessed!  We are blessed beyond belief!  The beauty of the day calms my mind, relaxes me, reminding me there are blessings in everything we have, everything we do and everything we are; love of family, the gift of time spent together, the beauty of a single snowflake, the feel of a hug, the community shared at Christmas Mass, texts and messages from family and friends, the brilliance of stars seen on a crystal clear night.  Blessings abound if we look, listen and feel with our heart and our soul!!  

Merry Christmas!!  May you feel the true gifts of the season in everything around you!    

Remember the Berries!

I have a green thumb or maybe even a green thumb and four fingers.  Flowers, plants and trees love me and I love them back. When we bought our house 18 years ago we had grass and a couple of small flower beds in the front yard.  Now we have grass, flowers, trees, shrubs, bushes, plants and ferns, of which only a very small percentage was purchased.  Evidently I am a growing talent fairy and have the ability to make things grow without consciously purchasing them or putting seeds in the ground! A few years after moving into our home I decided my talent needed to expand beyond flower beds and flower pots, so began the process of transforming the patch of land between our fence and alleyway into another haven for my fetish.  What started as a few solitary petunias and pansies evolved into a forest-like oasis!!  The fence line is shaded with honeysuckle bushes, currant bushes, bees balm, flax, lilacs, elderberries, bachelors buttons, dragons blood and trees I can’t even name.  The only thing I actually bought and consciously planted was the dragons blood!  This summer, the alley oasis became the backdrop for a story of love, hate, obsession, addiction, experimentation and salvation.      

When days began to warm up, my little oasis exploded!!  Leaves sprouted deep green, bees balm bloomed vibrant purple, flax swayed beautifully blue, currants and honeysuckle winked with the brightest yellow and white.  The air hummed with new growth and the bees flew circles, drunk on pollen.  As the season progressed bushes replaced their flowery finery with bold, rich berries.  Currants glistened, ripe, plump and burgundy, honeysuckle popped succulent red and elderberries clustered deep majestic purple.  For years I thought about harvesting my currants and doing something Betty Crockerish with them, but it truly never happened.  Alas, year in and year out the berries, once glistening and ripe, would shrivel, dropping to the ground unused, forgotten and wasted.  Not one single rabbit, squirrel or even bird enjoyed their sweet taste.  This year everything changed. 

The trees and bushes in the oasis serve as a safe haven for many animals, but especially the birds.  They lite on the branches, chatter, sing and seek shelter from neighborhood cats.  One morning I noticed a fairly young robin, still sporting speckles on his breast, perched on a branch of the closest currant bush.  His head tilted first left and then right.  He fluttered his wings a few times and seemed intent on staring at the berries.  You could almost see the conversation going on in his brain.
 
“Should I?  Shouldn’t I? They look so good!!  I am sure one wouldn’t kill me.” 
 
In an instant he reached out, tugged one off the branch and swallowed it.  A look, I have never seen on a bird, engulfed his entire face.  He was lit up.  I swear he smiled, beaming with pure and unadulterated love!!  In the next instant his beak was a blur as he dove into the currants.  Backing down the driveway I smiled as his head continued to plunge into the bush, burgundy currant juice beginning to stain his dark beak. 

The first taste of those sweet/tart berries changed everything for that little robin.  It became an obsession.  Every morning and every evening he would be back in the branches wiggling his body into the depths of the bush, searching for the most delectable currants.   As weeks passed we noticed an astonishing metamorphosis occurring.  The young, once sleek bird of flight, had transformed into a round fluffy tennis ball with stick legs and tiny wings.  His attempts at flight left us diving for cover on more than one occasion.  His labored sounds made us think we were being attacked by a small bomber.  As his girth increased, his wing span seemed to decrease.  Small tremors would rock the block every time he landed.  I would watch him stand in the grass looking at the currant bush.  He would turn his head and body and make as if to walk away but then would clumsily fly to the closest branch.  There was no doubt in my mind the poor little guy was addicted. 

Word got out, as inevitably happens with a wonderful secret, the berries were edible.  Soon our bushes and trees began to sway and dip with the weight of half the bird population in Laramie.  Our robin seemed frustrated!!  He would eye his friends, almost with hatred.  Puffed up he would waddle indignantly toward fellow birds as they sampled his stash.  It wasn’t long until we had the fattest bird population on the north side of town.  More birds were walking then flying.  Flight included only short bursts from the ground to the bush. Those who were not complete gluttons could manage a short flight to the top of the fence.  It wasn’t long and our poor currant looked bedraggled and droopy.  Almost all the beautiful, lush berries were gone.  A few solitary berries could be seen deep within the bush, saved only because they were lodged tightly in the branches where tennis ball robins couldn’t fit. 

Robins are not the brightest birds.  For a few days they hopped around the sad currant bush, wistfully eyeballing the branches, hoping for a miracle to produce more currants.  I shook my head as not more than 10 feet down the alley were two, much bigger currant bushes.  A few more days passed and somebirdy opened his eyes, saw the berries and blew the whistle.  The sound of wings, the thud of large aircraft landing and the chirps of satisfied little birdies once again graced the yard.  The remaining two bushes began to bow under the weight, branches bending and touching the ground.  Once again our yard was filled with fat tennis balls with wings.    

One morning as I was leaving for work I noticed that the beautiful bunches of elderberries remained, pristine and untouched.  Bunches glistened beautiful in the early morning light; dark, almost black with hints of deep red and purple.  Not a single berry had been touched by our gluttonous bird population.    

I could imagine the conversations taking place on the fence or ground.

“Hey does anyone know what those are?” 

“No idea, do you?” 

“Not a clue!!  Somebody should experiment and try one.  They look so good.”

“Are you kidding?  I’m not.  Remember what happened to Roger’s last little experiment?  He was sick for weeks.” 

“But man they look so good!!  Hey where is Frank?  He’ll try it.  Dude eats anything!”

While I was at work that conversation, or something like it must have taken place.  “Frank” or an equally fearless bird plucked up the courage to experiment and tried one of the succulent elderberries.  Realizing he didn’t die or get sick, the elderberry bush became an all-you-can-eat buffet.  I wasn’t sure if one bird or multiple birds made it through the buffet, but by the time I returned from work the bush was naked!!  Every single berry bunch was gone.  Nothing remained.  Not one single berry.  The only clue there had once been berries were the bare tiny branches that had once held the clusters together.    

The remainder of the summer saw birds in and out of the currant bushes growing increasingly rounder.  It wasn’t long before the morning light and crisp air signaled summer was ending.   Our ground-bound robins began to show panic between bites.  The colder weather meant the flight to warmer area codes was imminent.  That jaunt is difficult in the best of circumstances, but near to impossible when you have doubled your body weight!  There needed to be salvation or they would be forced to weather the arctic Laramie winter. 

Thankfully, salvation came in the form of a much trimmer, almost military robin.   He organized the rest of the flock and began what looked like calisthenics; dip, duck, dive, roll, touch those feet, use those wings, crunches, sprints – first on legs and then with wings.  Have you ever seen a robin sweat?  Well, these birds were sweating!  Before long the tennis ball roundness began to disappear and wing spans increased. Migration ready robins once again emerged.   

Fall is in full force now. Frost is in the air and the bushes look even more pathetic with the leaves falling to the ground.  Periodically, a stray robin will stop and wistfully look at the naked branches.  I hear chirps as they glance at the bushes and am never sure if it is sad because the berries are gone or a blissful chirp reliving happy memories.  

The first snow will banish the remaining robins from Laramie for the winter, but I can just imagine the discussions that will be held in those southern bird baths.     

“Frank, remember the berries?”

Welcome!!

Welcome to my blog!!  The adventure and journey leading me to the pursuit of my passion has been incredible!! I write and I am a writer!!  I will be sharing thoughts, feelings, observations, stories, and sneak peeks of my books in progress.  You are invited to read what I share with an open heart and an open mind; to look at the world differently; to see beauty in the day to day.  The excitement to share is unbearable as words continue to tumble around in my brain.  Stories and books have their faces pressed up against the window of my soul waiting to leave the recesses of my mind and live on a screen, in black and white.  Many of my books are close to being completed and I want to share them with you; welcome you into my world of words; create images you can see and feel; and find a place for you to escape.  This will not be a forum for angst and personal strife, but a place for words to take flight!!