Juxtapose

This morning my eye was opened and I lay in bed for some time, listening to the day, thinking my computer was on and sleeping. The hum, however, did not come from my computer, which was turned off, as even I, The Squintmaster, could see by squinting madly without my glasses and looking for the little LED on the front of the box. I listened to the sound, trying to discern whether it was my imagination. My ears always ring, probably from tons of ancient ear infections as a kid, and this time of year they're worst because of allergies, but it wasn't that. I finally stood up and went to the window where the sound was clearer and the voices of hundreds, maybe thousands, of birds lifted through the morning breeze and met my aching, stuffed-up ears. I went downstairs to look up through the skylights in the living room and see a few hundred in our trees.

I went outside and wandered to the other side of our street, my eyes and ears trying to come to terms with the noise and the sight of thousands of birds becking and chirping on the ground, the road, the trees, and on the roofs of my neighbors.

And then a car appeared at the crest of our hill, black as the ravens themselves, only clumsier and uglier and shinier, an Escalade meant only for show and no purpose other than that. It barreled down the road, not taking heed of the birds, not slowing to enjoy the splendor and the vastness of only a fraction of the millions of the universal, and came within feet of where their group was congregated on the road. All of a sudden, like in a movie, like in a dream, thousands of wings appeared and all lifted off the ground, their wings catching the sunlight at the same time, synchronized, all of them catching the wind in the same manner at the same time.

And I thought, what God is this who made these little starlings, all programmed to do their thing like this, to make a little show for a city girl like me? But he didn't program them. They are each living out their little lives, living and dying the way they should and they all came together this morning, just for me.