Little White Dove

Little White Dove. Hope you hear this tune with Running Bear as you read this maybe mundane piece of life. This song was very inspirational to my husband and me while we were dating- eating burgers and shooting pool. The owner raised his own onions, lettuce and tomatoes just outside that he made the burgers with.

Anyway, the other day my green ivy in her Pepto-Bismol pot looked odd, so I took a closer look and found a little bird tawny but more whitish- on the whitish side- nesting in my ‘Lilly’. This special ivy has lived and died with us and phoenixes back with us every time and usually with someone else’s wisdom. Lily was suffering from heat exhaustion and that is why I was watching her.

We bought our own house in February and there are not like ledges for plants here- so that’s why they are outside. Well now I am torn between letting our plant go, and letting the dove have her, or… I remembered going home one summer and my mother in law sharing with me how a bird nested in one of her plants- borrowed it for the season so to speak. Anyway, three days later my husband unknowingly sees Lilly in distress, and being an ex- horticulturist throws out the “trash” he thinks the summer rains put in there and brings her in and feeds and waters her. When I find out, I explained about the little white dove. He said "there are plenty of trees around, I mean, this is the first plant that has trusted us in a long time."

The next day I watch as they struggle to put their nest back on the bare baker’s rack ledge. It broke my heart. When they left for a break, I took courage from the experience with my mother in law and I went and moved their ‘half- built’ nest to a neighboring tree. I felt eyes on me and turned, and they were watching me from the fence post. I gently laid the last twig on and went inside. Later I returned and she was sitting on the nest they had put back on the bare bakers rack- they moved the nest back from the tree to the ledge. Well I can admire a choice- opinion made. So when they left I looked to a branch on the bottom ledge. I remember my husband laughing at me when I put it there and said “what’s the stick for?” And I said “I don’t know, decoration- nature I guess.” So I moved the little branch top side and thinking of a non- slip surface I put my garden gloves, grip side down under their nest and found more little twigs and placed them snugly so if in egg comes it won’t roll out the back side- my bakers rack has wrought iron. I was afraid the human scent would dissuade her but it was a win-win gamble: She would either find a new spot, or she could have a safe spot here on our ledge.

As I journal this she is sitting in my nest, preening her feathers and her mate is watching her from the fence. I didn’t think to move the little bird statue that’s beside the nest. When they go for a break I will move it so he will have a spot too.

Now we wait… will we have babies? I wonder what the gestation, little birdie cycle is for doves.

I'm a part of life, a part of another life's choice. My betrayal is not a sin- dynamics and consequences are our reason to evolve. I apologize for sounding weird, but it is hard to put my finger on the essence of the change.

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