By Ox Drover
Today I had an epiphany: I am happy. Really happy. Joyously happy. Exuberantly happy. Why is today different that any other day? Two months ago I was unhappy. Why am I now happy? Nothing much has really changed from two months ago.
I’m a few pounds lighter, but that isn’t what makes me happy, though, I am working on losing some weight. My bank account is quite a bit lighter than it was two months ago, so that isn’t what is making me happy. The psychopaths in my life don’t like me one bit more than they did two months ago. I haven’t found the love of my life riding on a white horse, or even a white donkey.
What is making me happy? Well, today I saw the “Bluebird of Happiness.” Yep, the real honest-to-goodness bright bluebird of happiness. Two Eastern Bluebirds, both males with colors so vibrant that I actually had to get my bird book and look them up to make sure of what I was seeing. Not the dull blue of the bluebirds we normally see in this area, who nest in holes in fence posts or in the boxes people put out for them. These were the true Eastern Bluebirds.
Why did seeing these birds and ascribing them to happiness “make me happy?” Well, I have chosen today to be happy, to look for one thing that would lift my spirits, to make myself feel happy, rather than dwelling on the many things in my life and environment that are not to my liking, or that I would change if I could, but I can’t.
I have chosen today to view those two male Eastern Bluebirds, sitting side by side on the top of a farm implement, and then flying down to my studio window where they see their own reflection and peck at these mirror images of themselves to drive off the images, to select for themselves breeding territory and to defend that territory from those imaginary birds that are trying to take over and claim that happiness and territory for themselves.
The sun is shining today, and the air is crisp and spring-like, and these birds are the harbingers of spring. After all the drab, miserable, wet and cold winter weather we had, the tough times are passing and the world and my spirits are renewing. I have a favorite book called Come Spring that is the story of a pioneer girl in upstate New York, when the U.S. was still a colonial part of the British Empire, and her stories of the terrible winters of her life and the lack of food and warmth and safety were all put aside because she believed that everything would be okay, “Come Spring.”
Well, today with the birth of a little calf and the sighting of two Eastern Bluebirds, my spring is here, and I am going to embrace it. Everything is okay, now that my spring is here. The winter is passed, and today is good.
hens
hey Kim last nite I watched ‘gaslight’ for the first time, it was on public TV station.. Was a really good b/w movie, and has some big names in it – Ingrid bergman and angela lansbury, it was a major movie back in it’s day and won several awards. I had never heard of it until i came here and learned why gaslighting is called that. How are things with Kim?
kim frederick
Hens, Isn’t that an old Alfred Hitchcock movie? Not sure about that….but 27 years ago, I would take abus on Friday night, in Oakland Ca. to get downtown and spend 50 cents to watch old AH movies in black and white.
I was engaged at the time, to a sailor at sea, I was in a strange city, I had 2 kids under 5, and it was my only time off.
I remember how it took a lot of courage to get on that bus, transfer, and get let off in a strange city, but, hell, it only cost 50 cents, and it was something I looked forward to all week. It was fun. And I felt proud of myself. I think I was 23 or 24 at the time.
kim frederick
Hen’s, for you:
http://www.lyricstime.com/beyonce-to-the-left-lyrics.html
hens
Kin Thats a great song – to the left !~ gaslight is not an AF movie, not sure who directed it. Yes that was very brave of you indeed to go to the movies like that, but back then was a different world, would you have the balls to do it now?
kim frederick
No, probably not….but if I was still 23, maybe.
kim frederick
I was fearless. ie, foolish. But those same dangers existed then. And they persist, now….but it’s like Jane Valez Mitchell says, do I want to live in a psychological burka all my life or am I willing to risk being free?
It’s not fair that a woman can not be free in her own country, without fearing being raped or murdered just because she’s not being escourted by a man who will protect her (from another man)…..
It really sucks.
hens
Back in the early 60’s we lived about a mile from a drive in theatre. my older bro and sis and I would walk that mile with a blanket and a big brown grocery bag full of popped corn. It cost a dime to get in, we would spread out our blanket take the speaker off the pole and watch movies, i remember seeing the wizard of Oz and old yeller.. sometimes we would sneak in under the fence and save or dime and we could buy a cherry coke funny now cause you know the owner of that drive in knew when we didnt pay – but he never said a thing…i have some good childhood memory’s..
kim frederick
Hey Hens, that’s the kind of thing you should write about. Tell your kids and grand kids.
I remember drive-ins. They are a thing of the past.
I remember loading up our old station wagonwith kids, my three and a couple others from the neighborhood, all pajama clad, with blankets to spare, and off to the drive-inn. We saw ET….remember ET? Fun. I think in this day of modern tech we’ve lost something…we’ve lost drive-inn movies!
hens
there are prolly a few drive inns left – not sure where tho.. yes i need to tell my grandkids about playing outside till dark – hide and seek – kick the can – annie over – simon says – cowboys and indians and runnin around screamin ‘the russians are coming ~! some of the thing we did – we even drank out of the water hose and survived lead paint – they didnt have seatbelts back then and we always rode in the back of the pick up when we went anywhere – saturdays was our big day – we would go to town and help mom do laundry – i can remember the smells of starch and bleach and those ole wringer machines – one time my bro stuck my hand in the wringer and my whole arm went in all the way, then he turned it on reverse and it slowly came back out – oh my that hurt – the asshole he laughed the whole time i was screamin…
geminigirl
Oxy, talking about the bluebird of happiness, a nd the Pearly gates,-have you heard this one? Three Nuns, {one a novice, second an older Nun, and third, the Mother Superior, all died, and went to heaven.They all 3 met St Peter at the Pearly gates.
He said,”Ladies, first, before I let you in to Heaven, I have to ask you a few simple questions.”
First Nun,
“How do you spell Charity?’
She got it right. “Yes, your in, next!”
2nd Nun,” How do you spell Faith?”
She got it right. “Your in.” next!
“Mother Superior, your question is a bit more difficult, as you the most senior Nun.”
Fair enough! she said.
“What were the first words that Eve said when she saw Adam in the Garden of Eden?”
Mother,
OOOh,”Thats a hard one!”
St.Peter,
Correct, your in!!
Love it!
Mama gem.Happy Mothers day, everyone, and happy happy Dads Day, hens!!XXX