Remember

Turtles are the animal most people think of when they think of me.  It took me years to discover that turtles were attaching themselves to my life, but when I finally did I realized how significant that was.

I carry my home with me.  Ever since I was a small child, home was wherever my family was and the places I liked best were small and cozy, like all six of us being packed into the car at night.  Now that I’m older it becomes even more significant.  I am at home when I am with people I love and I like my world best when it feels solid and safe.  Any kind of dissension makes me want to crawl into my shell and hide away.

However, there was another animal associated with me from the time I was very very young. Owls fascinated me almost before I was old enough to remember.  My father took me to the zoo just to see one when I was barely three and I remember standing in front of a glass fronted cage trying to talk to him.  “Who.  Who.  Who are youuuuu?”  The story goes I didn’t even want to see the other animals that trip. 

It was a huge white owl that sat on a fence post in central Illinois one Fall day that drew me into an strange little adventure and another big owl up in a tree during a snowy day hike with my sister that led me to rent a house in the country.

This past weekend my brother was telling me about a screech owl that has moved into his yard and it made me remember how terrified I was the first time I heard one of those.  Like coyotes howling on dark prairie nights, screech owls draw a primal fear up from the depths of my being.  It is like they are warning me of something I cannot yet see.

This week I am reminded again that owls are here to warn us, to remind us, to make us remember that this world is far from being sane and safe.

From the Owl Report:
Remember Matthew Shepard, December 1, 1976 - October 12, 1998