It makes for a beautiful scene out of any of the windows of our house.....my favourite being the one I'm viewing now from the corner of my eye just a blink up and over my computer screen. My middle child, my little four year old son, has known no other view from the porch other than this one and my baby daughter will be in the same boat. My oldest, who at sixteen spent the first eight years of his life in basement suites and questionable apartments with his mother while she struggled to make those long ends meet, knows how lucky he is to be able to crank up his stereo pretty much as loud as he wants and bother nobody but the birds perched on the wisteria branches just outside his teenager-shack window at the time.
My kids are livin' in the country and I like that just fine. Both boys can identify, and imitate, a variety of birds that frequent this neck of the woods. Ravens, cousin to the smaller crow seen in schoolyards waiting for the inevitable leftovers under swingsets and slides, are common amongst the cedar and pine trees. Their cackles, croaks and deep throated caws resonate the morning sky even as I write this. Barred owls turn bedtime stories on their pages when they get going in the darkness. At a recent fall fair the local wildlife recovery centre had a booth and resting on the arm of a volunteer was a tethered male barred owl who cocked his head and peered down with his liquidy black eyes as my wee lad looked up at him and spoke his language.
"Hoo...hoo..hooooo......hoo..hoo..are...youuuuuuu..." his little voice cooed as the volunteer beamed.
"Wonderful!" he gushed and I could have sworn the owl nodded in agreement. "That was just perfect."
My big lad can imitate a bald eagle's high pitched whistle so perfectly I 've seen the feathered giants turn their heads to him in mid soar as they pass over our property on their way to the Little Qualicum River when salmon run.
And I have stepped outside on dewy mornings such as these before the rest of the house wakes up, my steaming mug of tea warming my hands, and managed a bit of back and forth with the ravens that show up around our back property on the lookout for whatever is left behind from whatever the owls were hunting the night before.
The ravens are a big deal on this coast. First Nation totem poles and artwork are adorned with its image and legends are devoted to this big black bird with a bit of a sinister reputation. Referred to as an 'unkindness of ravens' when in a group it's easy to see why the first peoples along this coast felt compelled to carve out its likeness and tell tales of its magic.
My kids are lucky enough to live amongst the magic that is the raven, the bald eagle, the owls, and all the other natural wonders lurking in the forest around them. The chirping squirrels that leap from branch to branch and drive our dog right round the bend, the laughing woodpecker that jabs away at our maple tree in the back yard, the gentle footsteps of the Island deer as they tentatively venture out of the forest and onto our back property to graze......my kids share their childhood with them all.
It's not all a Snow White/Bambi extravaganza.....we've seen the carnage that is nature at its cruel and finest.
The Thanksgiving weekend when one of our goats was taken from her pen and dragged off by a big black bear who was tired of waiting around for the salmon when they were late coming up river that one year. Or the night the dog was going nuts in the bush on the other side of my husband's shop. Throwing on a fleece and my holey-soles I shone the flashlight amongst the trees to see what the fuss was about and saw the glow of eyes just a few yards away from my then pregnant belly. The dog had treed what we mothers of young children fear most on rural Vancouver Island. The bushes shook as my husband managed to call the dog away and the cougar ran off into the night.
The circle of life lives here on this property. Life and death has been explained to my wee lad and understood well by my sixteen year old and I am grateful for that although saddened that our poor old goat Lucy had to pay the price for the lesson.
Nature at work explains things a whole lot better than I ever could. She starts the conversation for me and gets the natural ball rolling in a way no gentlly written library book on death and dying every could.
"That rabbit is dead isn't it Mama?" my wee lad says matter of factly as we come across what's left of an owl's handiwork on the driveway as we take the garbage can to the road.
"Looks like it," I say as I adjust the baby in my front carrier to allow me to drag the can more comfortably.
"The owls need to eat don't they Mama?" he asks plainly.
"Yes...that's right honey," I answer as I pull the dog away before she rolls in the carcass as she so loves to do. No need to clean it up....the ravens will take care of the housekeeping and by lunchtime there won't be a trace to worry about.
I look at my little boy who takes a look at the remains in innocent wonder before moving on to grab at the branches of the pine trees on the edge of the driveway.
"Yup," he says pretty much to himself. "That owl was hungry."
So...our paradise has it's darkness too and I suppose the natural order of things is it. I don't expect my kids to feel all warm and fuzzy about death when it touches a family directly but I am thankful that nature has exposed them to the order of things. Life goes on around them and death is a part of that life.
The owls don't survive without the rabbits and the ravens won't survive without what the owl leaves behind and my kids understand that. Sometimes it makes them sad but they understand that animals need to hunt to survive. They also know how to be safe around the bush and to never venture out into it alone.
So I raise my tea mug to nature on this fine morning and as I sign off here I hear my family getting up out of their beds, the pitter patter of my wee lad's feet on the hardwood, my big lad's stomping around upstairs as he enters his morning shower, my husband's groan and stretch as he head to the coffee maker. Outside the crow flies....the raven croaks.....the eagle soars.....and life goes on and on.
Until next time.....enjoy the day.....
No comments:
Post a Comment