Every morning with coffee cup in hand, I slowly open my old front porch screen door. In opening it slowly and quietly (my husband is not an early riser), I get a chance to see if anyone else has arrived near our door to offer greetings to the new day. Sometimes, the Madrean Alligator Lizard has coiled up within the door space and I need to make sure my dachshund doesn’t think he’s breakfast or a Black-tailed Rattlesnake, oftentimes is sleeping behind my Virgin Mary statue that graces our rose garden. I always think that must be a sought after place among the wildings to bed down for the night, in Mary’s warm glow…:) The best is when there is a queue for the mealworms that are doled out to the “yardbirds” at least twice daily; Curve-billed Thrasher, Bewick’s Wren, Canyon and Spotted Towhees, Mexican Jay, to name a few…
After getting out the door and down the porch steps, maybe I’ll see a caterpillar inching their way, which invariably I have to ask friends for help in identifying..thank you Bob Behrstock and Karen Lemay of Pollinator Corridors website. Tarantula Hawk may be munching on an orange half on our oriole feeder, a few solitary native bees buzzing along the ground out from under oak leaves, or I discover some brave ants that have joined “hands” to float all night in a pocket of the sugar solution that I gently shake off onto the earth.
Off to greet more “friends”, another day begins…!
All these beings make up our beautiful special world on Earth and all our interconnected with us. We are energized by their language, beauty, and uniqueness. Every day I listen a little more and learn a little more, by understanding them, I come to understand myself and walk with a keener eye for the beauty that surrounds…
Sending rivers of loving intentions to Madrean Mother Wild…
“...May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life”