Blue Sky with Egrets

The morning was glorious. The sun, having just risen, was coloring the sky with deepening azure hues as I rounded a bend in the path. The lake in front of me was still when I saw them. Dozens of snow-white egrets adorning the trees, stalking the marshy edges, and then, one-by-one, taking to the sky. While there has rarely been a morning when I have not seen an egret at this park, I cannot recall seeing so many at once. I stood there in silence, my eyes skyward, until each and every one of them had flown beyond my sight. It was a long time before the smile left my face and I continued my walk.

Having been in such a funk for so long over political issues, I recognized this gift from the Universe as exactly what I needed. My gratitude at being in this place at this time made me absolutely buoyant. My walk became a run, my eyes rarely leaving the skies in hopes of seeing more of these elegant birds. Rounding the same bend in my path where I'd first viewed the egrets, I scanned the trees and lake for more. But there, just beneath the surface of the water, I saw him. The alligator.

He is not new to this park, but my sightings of him are few and far between. At first, it is even hard to be sure it is an alligator and not a bunched-up collection of leathery water-lily leaves. But the knobby nose (water) bump of body (water) and elongated tail convinced me that this was no water-lily. And although alligators can swim at about 20 miles per hour, this guy was taking his time. Maybe he's old. (Alligators can live to be 50 years old!) I watched him for awhile, became somewhat bored, and resumed my run.

The rest of my time at the park was spent in heady internal discourse about egrets and alligators. Both are wondrous examples of life-forms on this planet. Did you know that alligator teeth are replaced as they wear down? A gator can go through 3000 teeth in its lifetime! Did you know that egrets were endangered in the late nineteenth century due to the fact that they were hunted for the sole purpose of using their plumage to adorn ladies' hats? Did you know that egret offspring commit siblicide? The larger chicks kill their smaller siblings in the nest! But these facts aside, which creature would you want to encounter on a walk in the park?

The sky is blue, the egret is white. It cruises effortlessly at about 25 miles an hour. Its wingspan is about five feet while its long legs lengthen the bird to about three feet.

The depths of water are murky, the alligator is lumpy. Its three visible humps float along unremarkably, despite the ten feet of body propelling it forward.

It would be way too easy to veer off into a contemplation of good and evil and the tendency we have to perceive light and darkness as manifest metaphors. But I do find it disturbing that this tendency is so ingrained in us that we fail to consider the opposite. Pity the poor alligator. He, like the rest of us, is just trying to survive. Why do we fail to find the beauty in his existence? But, hey, he'd make a nice handbag, yes?

Singer/songwriter Michael Peter Smith has a beautiful song, "We Become Birds," in which he posits that we all become birds when we die. It's a lovely thought. Think of the choices: cardinal, heron, hawk, house wren, crane, scarlet tanager . . . What bird do you want to be?

But . . . what if we become alligators?