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Old Beady Eye

 

My name is “Old Beady Eye and this is my story.  I am a heron, a great blue heron, one of the tallest creatures on this shoreline, tall, silent, regal, and you may never notice me, because I have the power of such steadiness that your eyes may slide right over me and beyond. 

Only if I make a move, stab my long beak into the water  in one quick jab to catch a little silver glimmer, a fish perhaps, or a small sneaky crab sideling silently through the shallows,  or I may decide enough is enough and silently raise my great wings to leave the scene – only then will you notice me. You will say, “Oh, Look, there’s the great blue heron”, but I will be gone before your companion notices me. My power comes from concentration, though a sharp beak, reflexes faster than the  speed of light,  and large loft bearing wings also help. I earn my dinners by doing nothing. I sail overhead, locate a hopeful bit of shallow water, glide in for a landing as quietly as the fog itself, and wait, all beady eyed, until a slight glimmer, a tiny turbulence in the water speaks to my magnificent alert alarm system and before I am hardly aware myself old instinct has prompted me to dip and lift: dinner squirming on the end of my beaky lips.



I am a watcher, an observer, I like to remain still but not stodgy, alert, all senses focused, and then wait to see what happens.  Those silvery glimmers, what might they be? A new experience, a new insight, a new friend, a renewed sense of energy, or accomplishment… I am a great blue heron and I may flap over your ocean and land on your shallow shoreline tomorrow.

Stately, with folded wings, the heron stands

Alert but inert,

Concentration brings success.

-- n  April 2, 2024

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