It's 4 degrees here in Portland this morning and we are expecting snow again. I dreamt last night of robins - dozens of them. In the dream, my husband Garry and I were standing together in our backyard in Woolwich when an enormous flock of robins landed on the ground. The snow had melted and they were ravenous. I hoped that there would be enough for them to eat.
Thoughts of spring, thoughts of Woolwich, and thoughts of Garry - he has been away most of this month and I miss him.
This is a photoshop collaged self-portrait that I made last winter, with robin's eggs hatching above my head. And this is a video I took last April one morning early when the robins had returned. Turn up the volume and you can hear them singing in the trees. This is a miraculous sound after the dead quiet of winter in the woods. I've been reading and rereading Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now this winter. He speaks of his depression and coming through a dark night of the soul to awake and hear a bird singing. He writes: "I was awakened by the chirping of a bird outside the window. I had never heard such a sound before. My eyes were still closed, and I saw the image of a precious diamond. Yes, if a diamond could make a sound, this is what it would be like."
Hatching Self, 2007
digital photo collage
2 comments:
You really need to save up and come out here for a visit in the dead of winter! It would be a shock--from winter to spring over night. I like the sound of the robins!-------Sue
this is true! the 2 times i visited you in CA were in early spring (still snow and ice in ME)and i felt as though i'd landed in OZ. do you have robins in morro bay??
xo
m
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