Murtis Around Town


I took leave in the middle of the day in between working for several hours at home and going into the office for a semi-obligatory office party. It was cold, but it was good people were out. One citizen speaker talked about how she is finding her voice and learning to raise it. Her child needs medical care.

A treasured friend and respected colleague who left her body late last week was buried this morning. The work year started, then, with some colleagues and I leaving the office for a portion of the middle of the day to drive up to the cemtery and offer our love to her family and our good-byes to her physical presence. On the way back to the office, I noticed that the Potomac has been icing over, which is very unusual. I also remembered that I had my camera in my pocket. So I took it out and caught the moment in honor of my friend who would have loved the way the birds were dancing on the ice, in honor of beauty, in honor of the life teeming above and below the apparently still, frozen river.
This bush was full of tufted titmice and sparrows. They were all simultaneously chirping with excitement.
I imagined some of them agitated and anxiously saying of the unseasonable warmth hat it was not normal and something needed to be done.
The rest of them were loud drunks on the spring warmth. “Life is short. Enjoy what has come.”
Perhaps there was one truly wise bird who was saying that both of those are true and that recognizing both truths was a door to harmony.