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LESSON KEEP COMING IN ©By Russ





I awaken again in an all too familiar pain, unable to move. Waiting patiently for pain to subside, and in other places for feeling to return. My body feels like it was filled glue, which set up during the night. With each cautious movement, another piece seems to break free, and I am able to put my feet on the floor. Standing is awkward in the morning and I'm guaranteed to stumble each, and every time I try. Grabbing onto the post I push off, and lurch towards the couch. Sandals are the easiest to wear, and I put them on, and head for the porch, and just in time. An Osprey glides low, silently over our little yard. And for a moment blots out the patch of sky between the porch, and the loquat tree. Following the contour of the hill, she heads in the direction of the river backwaters, beyond, and below. A high scream breaks the morning’s peace, coming from the tree she had just left. A young osprey shrieking in objection to being left behind. I spot him high in a fir tree moving unhappily from limb to limb unsure of what to do. Mother’s call shatters the air, baby responds quickly, moving awkwardly to the end of the branch, and plunges suddenly off into space, following his mothers path, and out of my sight. Two minutes have passed and my morning lesson is complete. My body is unsticking...and so is my mind...mother nature leads the way. Leading me, like the osprey’s young, to serenity, and food for my soul. I return inside where there is breakfast to cook, dogs to feed, a paper to read. Email from Sri Lanka, (an AIDS Foundation requesting help), and I am amazed to learn that I can. A letter from the Azores describing the recent earthquake...a friend reassuring me she is well. A buddy in Chicago encouraging me. A man without his dog touching me. The phone rings, a dying friend calls to ask how I AM. All of this tells me clearly that; I wasn’t left out on a limb, as I had once thought. I have work to do of another kind, loving, living, and learning what it all means to be human. And all it took was that risk...that shaky leap in faith out into space, trusting I’m meant to soar and not to come crashing down.

Russ..........7-14-98