I’ve been waiting to write this..meaning to take my camera with me some morning when I walk to work, but it has not happened so perhaps I can try to make words weave the pictures…
Now that it is winter, I’ve started walking the two miles in to town to go to work. Biking isn’t as practical when it may rain (I hate riding my bike in the rain). So I bundle up against the cold, put on my walking shoes and head off. Everyday I see something new: somedays it’s a hawk or raptor gliding over the slough with the winter light glinting off his feathers. Other times it’s a ground hugging mist in the graveyard. I saw apple trees growing in the marshy lowlands, bright red apples glowing against the brown and grays of the marsh and sky. As I get closer to town I pass the shopping center where I do laundry every week. Invariably I am there at the same time as the seagulls and the seagull feeding lady. The gulls follow her from the store a few blocks to an empty lot, like a horde of loud raucous faeries and they fight over the bread she tosses out to them. After she’s done with the gulls she continues up the road and attracts a different crowd of followers, the crows (or ravens) who she feeds as she’s walking up 7th street…they follow after her hopping and cawing their thanks for the bread. Some days I’ll see the little old woman in her motorized wheelchair zipping down 7th street tossing handfuls of cat food to all the cats in the neighborhood. I walk past the homes that she leaves it at and see cats chowing down, some looking thin and skittish, while other look well taken care of. I suppose she doesn’t discriminate with her handouts. There is one house that looks abandoned except for the army of cats that hang out on the porch and walk way, she gives them multiple handouts.
I always find myself thoughtful for awhile after an encounter with the bird lady or the cat lady. I wonder what their worlds are like. Is this the highlight of their day? DO they go home to a crappy little apartment or a beautiful house? Are they cared for in the way that they apparently care for their chosen animals? I wonder if they are even real people or if they aren’t little bits of myth that slip out of their stories during the ‘tween time of morning and they retreat back into myth. I ponder what I can learn from them about generosity. and I smile. I appreciate the magic that they bring to my daily walk and I try to pass it on to others in my own small way. Many small blessings to all!

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