thejunipertree: (poppies)
thejunipertree ([personal profile] thejunipertree) wrote2004-09-01 11:14 pm

sparrows

Tomorrow I head out to the Medicaid office with a sack full of documents to verify that my mother is, indeed, able and eligible to receive benefits. I dug through so many envelopes and hidey spots this evening that dust is permenantly in my face, though I did find her divorce papers from my father, so many years ago. I also found a small paper book, crookedly stapled, and childishly drawn. Apparently, my brother and I had high aspirations when we were young. He drew it, I wrote it.

I laughed delightedly when I pulled it from my mother's old briefcase, completely not remembering what ages we could have been when we slapped it together. When he came home from his birthday dinner with his friends, I showed it to him. And we had a brief moment together there in the kitchen, where we grinned at each other.

Earlier this evening as I was driving home, I saw what could only be described as a swarm of small birds. They rose from an empty field, hundreds of them, and circled into the dying summer sky. Sparrows, from the looks of them, or wrens. I've never seen so many birds in one place before and they startled me so much that I had to pull my car over to the side of the road, in front of that ghetto barbeque place that my co-workers always joke about going to, and got out to sit on the hood. They dove and wove intricate patterns, like a school of tiny fish undulating.

Sitting there for those two perfect minutes, watching these birds move in perfect unison, I felt almost as if my life had been restored to its previous state. Something tickled against my face and when I reached my hand up to brush it away, thinking it was a stray hair, I realized I was crying.

[identity profile] sinisher.livejournal.com 2004-09-01 09:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I try my best to string tiny fragments of beauty like that together to make sense of getting up each day - sometimes it works, sometimes it unravels.

[identity profile] wee-scot.livejournal.com 2004-09-01 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)
You are something very special Ms.Tara. What you're doing for your mom made me smile. The book from your childhood made me grin. But the fact that you took the time to actually pull over and get out is what showed me something new. How many people would have been content to keep driving under the notion that where they were going couldn't wait two minutes more. In a society that seems to be so focused (and I do it myself) on getting where it ig going, it's nice to see someoone stopping to smell the flowers. I have to remind myself to do that more. Today I'm going to look around myself more.

Thank you.

[identity profile] mommyslilzombie.livejournal.com 2004-09-02 08:44 am (UTC)(link)
That is the most moving observations I have read this month.

Thank you Tara.