My sister Martha is a wonderful artist. Not long ago, she read a post from the beautiful blog: A Fanciful Twist. http://afancifultwist.typepad.com/. The post was about embracing the beauty of nature. Martha had been particularly busy that week, and decided to take a moment for herself before her three teenagers woke up.Energized by the beauty and wonder of the world around her, she opened her front door to skip outside into the garden of inspiration. Fairies were sure to be there welcoming her, along with the birds, butterflies, and flowers brimming with creative guidance and a spiritual muse or two.
What happened instead was this: Two birds flew into her house. Martha has 2 Golden Retrievers, and well, they aren't called "bird dogs" for nothing. Tweety #1 was the lucky one. She navigated herself back outside. Tweety #2 wasn't so fortunate.
The dogs, Sunny and Stormy, began doing what they do in nature - chasing feathered flying things. Tweety #2 flew into a window and fell. Sunny rushed to the rescue, and happily picked her up. She then began running around the house with pride. Martha reacted the same way that I would and began screaming: "No! Sunny, no! Drop it, drop it! No! Aughhhhhh!!!! Cookie! Cookie!"
Sometimes a bribe can work in a case like this. Sunny fell for it, and dropped Tweety in hopes of a cookie. Unfortunately, before Martha could react, Stormy picked up the bird and began to run around the house wagging her tail proudly, certain that she too would be rewarded with a cookie.
Martha began screaming: "Somebody, help me!" as she chased Stormy. Sunny smiled at the turn of events and began chasing Martha. My poor sister was sobbing, pleading, bribing Stormy with treats, back rubs, stock options - anything and everything that she could think of. By now, her three teenagers began to cautiously emerge from their rooms, certain by the sound downstairs that their mother was being attacked. Her oldest son was at the ready with a baseball bat. Her daughter and younger son had their cell phones, ready to press "send" after already having pressed 9-1-1.
I'm sorry to report that Tweety #2 didn't make it. We can only hope that the flight into the window was when she met her Maker. All we know for sure is that Tweety had a nice burial and is in a better place.
Martha's moral for this story: When looking outside for magic, remember to close the door behind you.
Visit Martha's blog: http://mjornaments.blogspot.com/
