About a month ago when I returned from one of my recent journeys I was happy to hear the sweet droning and cooing sound of a pair of doves out my window. I'd look out and find them perched eloquently as only birds on a wire can be. For me, it was a sure sign of spring.
Then a few days later when I aggressively stormed out of the house across the patio to my office and studio I realized I startled one of the doves. Wings flapping and making noise, confused and briefly direction less the dove scattered away from my studio. I looked up at the room line of the house to watch him/her fly away. That's when I saw the next. Right there behind one of the speakers that fills my patio with music. Later I watched the doves bring twigs and leaves as they continued to build the nest.
I wondered that since the doves seemed to have complete the bulk of their busy work while I was out of town, that the presence of this loud human walking across the patio several times a day would cause the birds to rethink their domain for offspring. The nest remained. But I really hadn't seem much of the doves in the past few days. Then last night I heard what I realized was a bird flying into the glass of the French doors that open from my studio to the patio. Then I heard a lot of rustling. Next a flash of orange whisks by the door. The orange of the neighbor's cat. I run out and find the cat has cornered the bird. The bird is startled, scared and frozen. But after a few seconds gains strength and confidence and flies away. Neighbor's cat bolts.
I thought I saved the bird's life.
Today as I returned from a meeting I notice the nest seemed rustled. Then below the nest I saw the baby. The tiny little dove. The symbol of love that had yet to open its eyes. Less than 3 inches long and barely any feathers but with a cute yellow beak. Unfortunately, the life of this newborn was robbed right from the nest. And the symbol lay peacefully to rest on my patio.
I looked at the nest. Barely held together and precariously teetering on the speaker. I started to life the nest away when I noticed the little feet. Tiny little bird feet. There were still baby doves in the nest. Two. Wow. So I tried to put the nest back together. As my hand worked the branches into my pseudo best weave attempt the little head of one of the doves perched up and with open beak in a moan or cry like pose, called for mom. But no sound came out of the little bird. I folded my ladder and returned to work. I'm sure the parent doves were watching me from somewhere nearby.
The cycle of life. Love. Drama. Partnership. Birth. Beauty. Struggle. Relief. Chase. Family tragedy. Death. Sorrow. And life again. All from the window of my office. Who needs TV?
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One of the most fascinating and exciting things about life's mysteries is chance. This post isn't going to be a deep excavation into philosophical matters of freedom, determinism and spirit. Rather, just life's unexpected twists, turns and discoveries. You know the kind I'm talking about. Like the time you decided to take a walk down a empty corridor in a New York Airport on a one stop flight at nearly 3am and the echoes of your shoes and only one other shout loud and sure at each other. The only other person besides you is Johnny Cash. Dressed in black. The same Johnny Cash you saw just a few months ago at The Crazy Horse Saloon.
Or standing in a retail store 3,000 miles away and 20 years later from the street you grew up when after 15 minutes of conversation with a stranger he asks you where did you grow up. And when you tell him, he presses for more. When you finally tell him the name of the small town in Connecticut he asks, "Did you live on Abbey Road?"
Or how about the time you're driving home late at night and stop for gas before coming home. When you get down the road a big racoon runs out in front of you and you send him sailing while he leaves your bumper mangled. Poor guy.
Or how about when you meet someone by chance and shrug off the idea that you may never see that person again and yet by some twist of fate you run into that person two days in a row just a week or so later. You make a connection. But just not sure how or why. Nor what's next.
Or miss a flight. Pissed and angry at yourself you wait hours in an airport for the next. On the flight you sit next to someone who turns out to become a great friend, client or mentor.
There are times that cause and effect may lead you to ends that you question wouldn't have happened had you only made a different choice. Yet choices are made and we all, in varying degrees, hold ourselves accountable for these choices. And sometimes this can take a toll on the mind. But this is the stuff great lives and experiences are made of.
Two mantras I try to live by are as follows (and by the way, my apologies for the original authors) 1) at the end of the day the only things you tend to regret are those things you didn't do; and 2) if you choose not to decide, you've still made a choice.
So live. Experience. And enjoy. This is not a dress rehearsal.
Photo note:I'm going to start to include more of my photography on the posts and pages of The Digital Tavern. While many of the photos that have appeared here in the past have been mine, I've used photos from a number of sources. In the future, I'll do my best to attribute the sources when known, or otherwise indicate that the photo was not taken by me. I took the photo that graces the top of this post in 2001 in Napa Valley on the property of Francis Ford Coppola's Neibaum-Coppola Estate Winery.
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