Ellie's Crows by Myers MaryAnn

Author:Myers, MaryAnn [Myers, MaryAnn]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Sunrise Horse Farm
Published: 2010-07-20T16:00:00+00:00

~ 13 ~

Abby sat down with a book Ellie had loaned her; the one with the chapter about “becoming a crow.” With the storm outside and her husband out of town for a few days, it was the perfect night to curl up with a good book. She contemplated the preface. The author seemed like a neat lady. “For as long as I can remember,” the woman wrote, “I have felt close to nature. I have felt the aliveness of each unique entity, whether holding a stone in my hand and feeling its warmth or coolness, drinking in a magnificent skyfull of sunset, or quietly watching deer moving alertly through the forest with indescribable grace and elegance.

“Some years ago, these imageries started nudging me. Eight of them emerged, and then I set them aside, involved with other things in my life. Early last winter, they began nudging me again, only harder, seeming determined to be born into the world. Since then, they’ve been ever-present, calling me back if I’m too long away. This book you hold in your hand is the culmination of that birthing process.”

Abby gazed again at the cover, a welcoming summer path in a lush forest. The book had been a gift to Ellie, the inscription reading, “For your birthday. I was there! Love, Grandma Betty.” Chapter Eight was about the crow. Abby sipped her coffee and started reading.

“Become a crow…. Experience your body…. Black, with shimmerings of deep blue & purple…. Look around from your roosting place high in a pine tree…. You can see for a long distance…. On one side, the woods offer roosting trees and shelter for assembling…. On the other, farm lands open wide, with special opportunities for food…. And beyond, the noisy highways of constant movement, where animals often die….

It’s dawning. You stretch your wings, and become aware of your hunger…. You take off from your roost, with a relaxed CAW CAW CAW, inviting others to join you in your morning search for food. Experience your wings as they move slowly and deliberately in flight, with regular even wingbeats against supporting air…. Feel the air parting as you move through…. Others of your friends are flying too, in a loosely-formed flock. You fly toward the cornfields. This is the time of seedsprouting…. No two-leggeds in sight. Only the still sticks dressed like a two-legged. You scornfully land on its hat, waiting for the others to gather… Now you all settle on the field, savoring the tender sprouts…. A sharp crack reverberates. A two-legged with a killing stick! CAW! CAW! CAW! CAW! Great danger! The dispersal call is given, and the flock scatters instantly. Your wings beat hard and evenly, carrying you away from the field….

As you fly, you hear the call of a friend, and you both turn toward the highway… You settle together onto the dirt near the road. No newly-killed animals in sight here, but you feel the vibrations with your feet as the big, many-wheeled, noisy ones pass by.

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