Also: needling noses, feeling for others, juxtapositions of color, spiritual practice, and shielding nature from unwanted gazes.
I just heard1 an excellent spiritual practice is sitting outside for one hour every day. It’s Sunday morning and I also like to write. Let me share it with you.
Near my back gate, is a bush who’s name I just needed to look up for you – a ‘Sonic Boom’ Weigela.
I bought it years ago, a scrawling little thing in a pot. The woman at the nursery said it would attract butterflies. It has attracted hummingbirds instead. Today, it carries a plastic flamingo and baby cardinals too.
The adult cardinals fly back and forth to feed the nested fledglings up and to the right of the flamingo as I write this. I am so fortunate.
I feel I should apologize for not giving you a photo of the spectacular stuff, at the most spectacular time it happens. But I won’t. You may have my art below instead. That is colorful enough.
The bush is between bloom times.
The flamingo is relic of the relationship my husband had with his high school students. He lost a job he once loved by standing on accountability.
The kids used to prank him sometimes, covering the front yard in pink plastic delight.
This bush-turned-tree blooms twice a year, in late spring, then again in August.
A deep pinky-red. I marvel how every branch can contain so much saturated color – hard octopus arms splaying hundreds of little color horns begging for beaks.
We may need to trim the Weigela back, it’s grown much taller than we anticipated.
But we won’t because cardinal fledglings are in a nest up and to the right of the flamingo. The mother cardinal flies back and forth as I sit here. The male cardinal stands watch up and to the right of me.
Art Box
Pink. Drawing of red breast, teal wing marking, and inverted color. This drawing was made atop an iPhone photo.
Seeing note: the background is pink, not the bird itself.
I don’t interfere with their process by sticking my gaze up in their business, as much as I’d like to give you “proof” of what I see. Instead, I wait for a clear shot from my table.
Thanks “mom,” what a lovely set of curves and graceful directional gazes.
Have a beautiful day.
Elizabeth