My thanks to the several of you who emailed during this time I've been away from posting: it was rather nice to know that there really are readers out there. As I explained to those who wrote, I spent the end of last year and much of the first months of 2014 either horizontal or barely vertical. Turning 60 post-operatively with a brand new left knee, "celebrating" that auspicious day with the help of a walker and attempting to get clear headed through a whole mess of drugs, slowly returning now to a close facsimile of my norm but still feeling pain and tired.... Okay, enough whining, it's good to be back.
I spent five days in the hospital, receiving truly excellent care but in an obviously not-my-home environment. The TV stayed off (it's just so much noise) and the pages I glanced at could have been riddled with mouse droppings for all that I retained. The only moments that felt like happy distractions were when a bird flitted past the window.
It was a cement box view, the window closely framed in on the left and right by even more of the massive hospital structure, so the view was a just a few feet straight ahead. As such, anytime a bird flew past it was visible for a quick couple of seconds only. But they were joyful seconds, welcome signs of a natural life, of a life outside that bed and those four beige walls.
The unseasonable Winter is of course a problem and I don't celebrate the drought dry year-end. But I was so glad for the small sighting of the birds, more than I might expect in a normal December. They were all too quick to identify (what my birder friends, those building their life lists, would call LBBs for Little Brown Birds). But they were alive, free, and winging from one place to another with abandon.
I went home to our houseful of animals, and the early part of the recuperation was hard on the pooches (and me) but great fun for the kitties. I was home but could not be cuddled by dogs who have no concept of personal space (my fault, I know, but I've never before needed or wanted any distance from my dogs): the leg was so easily hurt and my dogs would want to lay on top of me (and it is attached), so the door had to be blocked from ground up to about 3'. Such whining, such brown eye pleading, from them and me alike. But after a couple of weeks we made up, despite the scary walker, with the help of cookies and now happily all of that too is a fading memory. My dogs may be over dramatic but they are also most forgiving.
The cats, however, were unfazed by the obstruction and appeared to enjoy (as did I) the chance to snuggle almost 24/7. Happy for their warm embrace, we watched the larger world together through another window, but this one facing our well planted yard full of squirrels and birds. Frankly, if it were left up to the cats, they would still be ordering bed rest. Dear things that they are.
The animals have been my company during these uncomfortable months, those glimpsed outside and those loved indoors. They are the best medicine.