"Star-flinging Spirit,
you stop, stoop, kneel, and embrace,
everyone and everything in need of your love and care.
May I join you today in caring for your creation,
embracing my role within the family of life."
~Sam Hamilton-Poore

I've just come back to my house after being on the Friday errand run. In the coming and going, I encountered a flock(is that what it is called?) of turkeys. Wild turkeys. Enormous birds, nearly prehistoric looking, pecking at the ground for all the bounty that falls in the autumn season. While over the last few years we have seen them with more regularity, it never ceases to stop me in my mental tracks when they show up by the side of the road.

In my errand running I happened to over hear a news report that there had been a bear sighted in a northern St. Paul suburb. Parents noticed it while they were watching as their children waited for the school bus. Who knows how it wandered into the 'civilized' neighborhoods where humans live? I didn't hear the end of the story so I hope bear and humans are fine. I also hope the bear was able to be returned to an area more conducive to its living.

It caused me to wonder what it was like, what it is like, in those places where humans and wild animals live in closer proximity. I would assume there is a respect that must be developed by humans to understand the wildness of these creatures. I wonder if the animals develop a similar respect for the often quirky ways humans order their lives. It would be wonderful if this mutual respect could be developed and then passed on to other communities, wouldn't it? It might even be something that would be of benefit in those sometimes terse and seemingly impossible human to human relationships that exist. 

In a week or so we will celebrate the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi known for his love and care for all creation, especially the animals. It is always a glorious day when the two-leggeds rise to their best selves as they bring their four-leggeds, their winged and scaled friends to church. As dogs, cats, mice, ferrets, birds, and even insects are brought forward for a blessing, I am always warmed by the love that surrounds both animal and human. There is such a feeling of hope in the room. It is a time when we recognize the Star-Flinging Spirit right in our midst. Some of us have words to express this. Others simply wag, purr or screech.

The next time I see the wild turkeys walking the path with me, I want to remember to send a blessing their way. It is a privilege to glimpse their beauty and courage in what can be a fairly routine human existence. What a gift to be sharing the earth with them!