Upon arriving home, I noted that the two eggs in the pigeon's nest in our window had hatched, and there sat two somewhat large chicks, being tended by their parents. Since then, one of the two chicks has lifted its wings and learned to fly; his sibling adamantly refuses to budge from the window sill.
It has been almost amusing, the perpetual "conversation" between the adult pigeon and this baby, which probably translates to, "Come on already, your brother/sister figured it out, it's not scary. Get out of the house and get a job..." And yet in the last week there has been no progress, the chick is staying put.
Watching Dora last night on cable television, the show was regularly interrupted with notifications of bombings taking place in real time throughout the south, a free service courtesy of the government.
I get it, it is scary out there, and now more than ever for those of us living in Israel during a war. Last night we both went to sleep early in an attempt to finish off our jet lag, and I woke up with a terrified start in the early hours of the morning, having just dreamt that I got separated from Raphaela during a missile attack, playing out the horrible possibilities as a parent. I never really fell back asleep after that, my heart was racing too fast and I did not want to close my eyes and replay that scene in my head.
Then, while walking Raphaela to camp today, we stopped at the usual spot to feed the street cats for whom we have taken responsibility. An Israeli soldier sat on the wall, he could not have been more than 22 or 23 years old, unlit cigarette dangling from his fingers. I told Raphaela to thank him, to acknowledge that he is putting his life in jeopardy to keep us secure. I asked the soldier where he was stationed, and he told us that he was waiting for his ride to the army base, and after that he would be placed on the border of Gaza in the South of Israel.
With tears in my eyes, I wished him well and told him to "stay safe," as if he or I have any control over the matter.
1 comment:
I'm going to de-lurk in order to pass on a link that might interest you -- the FB page of an American-Israeli poet who has lately been posting poems on a daily basis about the pigeons he observes from his bed, to which he is confined due to illness. Your pigeon remarks reminded me of him ... I think you would like his poems: https://www.facebook.com/ed.codish?fref=ts
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