Chapter 24
April 24, 2008…………….Home, Home in the Keys
I paid the toll and decided to stop and watch the birds; in lieu of stopping to smell the roses as there were no roses but plenty of birds fishing off the point. I parked my truck and walked along the highway to a place where I could sit on the bank of the bay at the base of the bridge.
It was a beautiful day and the terns were diving frantically. As I watched tearfully, allowing myself to grieve for Red but feeling thankful for all the fun we’d had on these waters, I wondered whether I would ever have someone to share my life with again.
I also wondered if Red were part of the birds and decided he really had to be as we are all part of each other; All in One, One in All. After a few deep breaths a smile came over me and it was time to head to where I was going to sleep tonight.
When I stood to leave I was surprised to see a tern about 3 feet behind me. I quietly laughed and slowly took out my camera to photograph this little piece of the Collective Consciousness. After taking its photo I stepped slowly so as not to disturb it. As soon as I moved it started to hobble towards the road and I realized it was injured.
I couldn’t let it go out into traffic. The cars were speeding by at 50mph and it would have been killed instantly. I had to move quickly and grabbed its wings by its rear. I tried to hold him away from me far enough so the beak wouldn't be able to peck me. It squawked and screamed and tried to get free. I just held tight and started to walk back towards my parked truck about a 1/4 mile away.
Fortunately, its beak wasn't able to reach my hands, yet. As I walked people in their cars were stopping to pay the toll on the bridge and looking at me as though I were crazy. I just smiled and sang to the bird, which seemed to calm it a little. When I passed a sheriff's car and I asked him if he had a rag or towel I could throw over the birds head. He said no. Thanks buddy, was what I wanted to say, but I just smiled and kept on walking.
Once back at my truck I held the bird in one hand and pulled my keys out with the other and opened the door. The first thing I needed was something to wrap the bird in so I could take it to the place I knew they could mend the poor thing and set it free once it was well enough.
I had done a lot of work, volunteer and on salary, at The Wild Bird Center in Tavernier and had learned how to handle birds from its owner, Laura Quinn. My first lesson in bird handling occurred as a hurricane was approaching. My room mate had worked on the operating staff with Laura. We stopped by to see if there was anything we could do to help prepare for the oncoming storm.
We were sitting in the office when Laura walked in and said, “We are going to release all the birds that can fly and bring the rest in here so we can evacuate.” Apparently we were part of the rescue team.
I grabbed a towel and walked out to capture my first bird. Per her instructions the Ibis in the first cage was to be brought inside as it was incapable of flying. I was a little nervous as I made my way into the cage. Laura watched me as I threw the towel over the bird’s body not knowing I was supposed to cover its head too. The Ibis immediately pecked me right between the eyes. Laura laughed and said, "Boy, you’re going to be fun to watch." I smiled and covered the bird’s head with the towel and will never have to learn that lesson again.
As those memories came rushing back to me I looked into the back of my truck and saw one of Red's Hogs Breath tee shirts on top. It was dirty and I had plenty of his tee shirts so I wrapped this one around the frightened, injured bird, making sure the bird’s head was covered. I climbed into my truck holding the bird in my left hand and driving with my right. I drove that way for awhile, holding the bird away from me so if it pooped it wouldn’t get on my new dress but it seemed so frightened I decided to hold it close to my heart. I decided how the bird felt was more important than my dress and hoped if it relieved itself on me I would be able to wash it out. Don’t they say bird poop is lucky?
Holding it against my body, close to my heart calmed it considerably. When I began chanting “Om” it slowed its breathing and ceased struggling completely. We rode this way the 20 miles to The Wild Bird Center in Tavernier. It was late in the day. I hoped there would be someone to receive us.
I parked and was greeted by Laura at the door of the operating room. She welcomed us with open arms and said, "Hello, I thought we were done for the day."
I told her good evening and handed her the bird and the tee shirt and said, “I know you are always happy to help an injured bird. I am not sure what is wrong with this little guy but he appeared behind me as I was sitting at the foot of the Card Sound Bridge.”
I followed her into the operating room I had cleaned so many times so many years ago. It was a warm and fuzzy-familiar place where wonderful people helped God's creatures.
She thanked me and I asked her if I could take her picture. She smiled and said, “Yes.” As she was holding the bird she said, "This bird is nearly dead, you brought it in just in time." I told her I was glad I had made it in time because I wanted the bird to die of old age, not injury.
She quickly replied that old age was not such a nice place to be. I told her I rather liked it for now and thought it was better than death. She looked at me and asked, "How can you be sure?"
I looked at this worn, tired woman who worked so hard dedicating her life to saving the birds of the Florida Keys. She was most likely in her late 70s now, older than her years from all her hard work and dedication. Her premature aging not only came from the work she did saving the birds but from the loss of her husband and her son.
I now shared something with this woman. I told her, "I lost my husband to a heart attack last fall, Laura, and I know I was glad to get up this morning. I have a lot of work left here to do and, I think you do too, otherwise, you wouldn't still be here."
She smiled and thanked me again and headed off to the back room to re-hydrate the bird with a feeding tube.
I walked out to my truck and watched a mother leading her blind son to each cage around the parking lot allowing him to touch the birds whenever they were against the wires of their cage. I thanked The Universe for my life and my healthy sons and my Jnana; a Sanskrit word for the knowledge there is something bigger than us out there.
I also thanked God for my Dharma; a Sanskrit word meaning my path through life. I know when I am in the groove and following my Dharma I am headed in the right direction and life is so much easier for me.
I decided it was a good time for a walking meditation to the bay. There were very few people here this late in the day and after chanting for the past half hour, I wanted to stay in my “happy place” a little while longer.
I walked down the boardwalk out to the bay, focusing on my breath and counting my steps and appreciating the beauty I was walking through; cage after cage of healing birds. When I got to the last bench on the bay I sat for awhile watching birds roosting for the night.
The sun was beginning to set and I started back to my truck as the no-seeums and mosquitoes were coming out for dinner. When I got to the parking lot I realized my timing was perfect again. Laura came out of the building to tell me some very disturbing news.
“This bird is not injured, it was dying of poison, most likely from drinking the ground water from all the rain we’ve had recently,” she informed me. She added the bird was banded and she would be reporting it to the authorities who had marked him.
“My youngest son is doing his master's work at Cornell University in science education because he watched the quality of the water decline drastically in the 8 short years he worked here in the Keys doing eco tours," I told her.
"It’s getting worse all the time. I am glad your son is going to help us help the earth," she said and walked back inside.
She turned to tell me she could probably save the bird by detoxing its body and thanked me again for saving the bird’s life.
How perfectly awful and perfectly perfect all at the same time; I was being reminded how important my work on DianesDetox.com really is. As breathers of the air and drinkers of the water it is essential to teach humans how to detox. We absorb these unavoidable toxins everyday.
Since I was in Karen’s neighborhood I called to say hello but got no answer. I wasn’t going to stay at her house tonight because she had other company visiting. Fortunately, I have many places I can lay my head in the Keys and tonight’s spot was in Key Largo. I headed back up to mile marker 100 to have a bite to eat at Sharkeys and to rest my weary bones. I could almost taste the fish tacos and feel the comfort of the bed in which I would be sleeping. It had been a long and wonderful day and I was ready to rest.
April 25, Friday
I woke in the most comfortable bed in the most comfortable home in Key Largo. After eating the best fish tacos in the world while chatting with the bartender, my good friend Annie, I sleepily gave her a hug and promised to see her again when I returned to Key Largo later next week, after helping with a sailboat race and then a songwriters’ fest in Key West.
I stretched in bed and thought about last night with a smile. I had driven the few blocks to the Castle after my tacos, cake and hug at Sharkeys and let myself in the gate. We started calling this house the Castle when my dear friend Lance first considering purchasing it. I remember the first time he brought me to the property and proudly showed me how he could dock his boats on the canals on three sides of the property. It was a huge white structure and he wanted to buy it and call himself the King of Key Largo. I remember telling him his life would change from the carefree captain in the Boy Scout program to a mortgage holder with big bills. He definitely wanted to go for it so I wished him well. I’d helped him with many other projects, including refinishing the first boat he put into service in the Boy Scout program and told him I would help in anyway I could.
A lot had happened in both of our lives since then; we’d drifted in and out of each others lives many times. He performed the ceremony in which Red and I were married on the Calypso Poet. Red had worked with him and gotten his captain’s license with hours he had logged on the Poet and the Gypsy.
Lance, too, had fallen in love and married and now had a beautiful new baby. His lovely wife, the Queen of the Castle, had come into my room sometime in the middle of the night to shut off the computers she uses in her work.
I got out of bed and hesitantly opened my door, wondering if the pit bull were still around. The only difficulty I’d had upon arriving here was the surprise addition of the new dog. Hydro, the German Sheppard had remembered me and greeted me with a wagging tail but was no help at all in introducing me to the barking pit bull.
I stretched and got out of bed to go out to the water and do a little yoga. I helped a lovely family cast their beautiful sloop off the dock on their way back up to the mainland after spending a few days sailing and diving in the waters off Key Largo.
I was happy to be here with people I consider family, even if it was just for an overnight on my way to Key West. Good friends and great memories.
NEXT CHAPTER
|