Birds Birds Birds

I have gotten into the habit of taking my dog Lani for walks down on Slaughter Creek . We are fortunate enough to get there between 9:30 and 10:00 most mornings, allowing us to have the place to ourselves most days since folks who run or walk before work are usually already gone. We take the rough trails through the park and then along the bank of the creek. A quite approach sometines enables to sneak up on the winged residents of the park without being noticed. A pair of cormorants have staked out a spot on a dead tree that hangs out over the creek just above the dam. Ownership of the tree is sometimes shared with the largest blue heron I have ever seen. All is peaceful until the swans show up. At times we have heard the ruckus before we even get to the lookout. The heron screeches and the swans honk. The cormorants just fly away.

Last Tuesday the water was clear, the cottonwood trees were bright yellow and orange and the temperature was almost 80 degrees. The birds were on the tree and for once, the swans were gliding gracefully by without disturbing the others. Even Lani was still and quiet as we watched for a few minutes. I knew that the weather was about to change and that we would not be able to return to the spor for a few days. I also thought that the birds might not be around much longer. My high school English teacher, Alta Hawkes, called such experiences "crystal moments". They are the ones you file away in your memory to be returned to again and again.

I am grateful for such moments and for all of my teachers, formal and otherwise.

I consider everyone with whom I come into contact a teacher/messenger. Sometimes they show us what we would like to be and other times they show us something we don't want to be. Always, we are shown a part of ourseslves. We get to choose how we react to that. The outcome any situation is determined by our reaction to it. It is my intent to remember that I am a teacher for everyone with whom I come into contact. At the very least, I teach them who I am in that moment.