a message for you.
please excuse my dust as this blog site is still under construction.
to everything - turn, turn, turn.
(posted on Thursday, April 9 by eii wyy nae.)
Across the street a friend lays dying.
I sit here in the blessed silence of my house.
Stop reading right here if you must - I don't blame you; I would turn away if given the opportunity. I wonder if I should even mention this at all - part of me just wants to write a list of all the things that bring me joy, to weave a spell with magical words and phrases that will make this okay, but across the street a friend is dying.
It seems to be spelled out in capital letters right out there in the dark early morning air that separates our houses. She is in that in-between place I write of so often, much more there than here, and while she is not alone, she is alone.
. . . tulip trees, sweet olive trees, magnolias, camellias, hackberry trees, azalea bushes, daffodils, hydrangea, cherry laurels, climbing yellow roses, robins' nests, guardian owls, pear trees, pecan trees, wisteria vines, paper whites, oak trees, turkish caps, red cannas . . . I chant these birds and plants to myself, sitting here in the midst of them all. I can see myself from above, warm and cozy with the fire spluttering behind me, a clock softly ticking . . .
A clock softly ticking.
It is still dark outside, but daylight is stealing in - I hear a bird calling; I still don't know what bird it is, and despite my earlier promise to myself to find out, I may not. I may let its identity remain a secret.
Another bird is singing now, and there - another. They welcome the day. But across the street a friend is dying, I want to tell them, hush, and as I think that, they sing more loudly, and more join in. She would like that, I think. She would want the birds to sing her to a new place; she would tell me that some silences are different than others.
so this silence is full of birdsong.
It is full of the beginning of a new day.
Signed with love,
the diary keeper, ‘my charliegirl.
Labels: birdsong, blessed silence, guardian owls., magical phrase, paper whites, red cannas, softly ticking
