Magical Moments, Beautiful World

While the weather still seems unseasonably cold and wet, the longer hours of daylight and the occasional bursts of sunshine have brought forth the green leaves and brilliant blossoms.

The animals, too are glad of winter’s departure. Within the space of just ten minutes, on this morning’s short drive to the SPCA, I saw so many affirmations of the beauty of life.

I saw a doe emerge from the trees and bound across the road in front of me to enter the brush on the other side.

I saw a heron preening and cleaning his beautiful blue grey feathers in the middle of a verdant field.

I saw an eagle, its white head brilliant in the sun, soar above the treetops in the clear blue sky.

I saw a sleek black cat stalking its prey in a field of short gold stubble, its sinewy body stretching, moving with such fluidity, eyes never leaving its target.

And I saw an old man, hair greyed and body stooped, walking with an equally old black lab along a railway track in a picturesque valley.

Later in the day, walking the block or two to the beach with Charley and Sadie, the pleasure continues – colourful red currant bushes in bloom, yellow daffodils nodding their heads in the breeze at the ferry terminal, flowers and birds and greenery everywhere I look.

The young man who cuts my grass shows up and splashes his way around my soggy yard, trimming the edges and mowing what he can. The smell of newly cut grass fills the air. No fabric softener or air freshner or incense stick can ever come close to capturing the wonderful fragrance of a new mown lawn.

And I sink my face into the soft, soft fur of this muppet-like foster puppy (for she really is still very much a puppy) who today took her first brave steps onto the driveway without so much as a quiver, eager to meet the young man with the noisy lawn mower. And then walked right past the car, on loose leash with head high, to return to the house. What amazing progress for such a scared little girl.

Makes me glad to be alive. Makes me glad to live where I do. Makes me glad to do what I do.