Chloe! You are a blessing. Your words are like liquid love, sunset coloured, sweetened with humour , deep wisdom and earthy practicality. Thank you for being Chloe Hope, and for writing wonderful essays and sharing them with us every two weeks. You are a beacon of light.
I listened to how you witness your world to write this beauty of words today. I stared out my living room window, where a leafless Hop Hornbeam stands guard quite literally over the house. It’s naked branches only showing a tiny hint of spring. My Nesting Ball hangs at eye level, you know the one. Grapevine wrapped, globe shaped , like a tiny planet filled with special offerings for our bird friends, as you’ve taught me. A Robin, chooses the fine Birch threading I meticulously shredded, collected from what lay on the forest floor, pleased, she takes flight with a mouthful. Then a Nuthatch, carefully approaches from his hiding place on the other side of the tree trunk ,circumventing, seemly tiptoes. He eyes Ranger fluff, takes his prize, awkwardly maneuvers back , winging away, disappearing into the forest. I hear the melody of your voice. Learned the secrets of your garden, as I watch mine. The dandelions, seed seekers, chocolate egg hunters, and the like. “We each have a lifetime, whatever that may look like, to practice how we approach the things larger than ourselves.” Our little worlds play out in front of us, separately, across an ocean, but together. Thankful for all the “….wise companions along the path”. “Little beings” and bigger ones.
Your nesting ball IS a tiny planet! And if it were my planetary home, I would like to leave on the Ranger continent (even if Nuthatches were trying to relocate it). So many little friends, little teachers, to be found in our respective gardens. So grateful that we get to share across an ocean 🌊♥️🌊
I don't really understand why, but when I got to the part about the baby sparrow I teared up. Thinking of that little life and your respectful homage to it. Beautiful. Thank you. And also, I am totally on board with letting it be known how cats decimate bird populations. The argument that cats are just doing what cats naturally do doesn't hold water. They ( cats) are domesticated species only here because of us. They kill for sport, for fun. And in huge numbers. That message needs to get spread. Cats belong indoors
You know, I still tear up when I think about him. His tiny little body and his perfect face. I don't think I'll ever forget him. And thank you, Mary. It really doesn't hold water, they're an invasive species and they're known to be wiping out huge numbers. It's an insane cultural blindspot. One that gets me in trouble, sometimes, for highlighting, but alas..!
I love my cats, but I also love my bird friends in the yard. So my kitties live the indoor life, although the brave one gets some outdoor time as she doesn't mind being on a harness and leash.
In my area (coastal New England in the U.S.), another non-native predator species that has moved in are coyotes. They took over the ecological niche left when the native wolf population was hunted to extinction many years ago. Mostly, they eat mice, rats, rabbits, and other small mammals - but they have decimated the outdoor cat population in this area. So, most people around here now keep their cats as indoor-only pets.
I felt kind of bad confining my cats to indoors, as I always grew up with free-roaming indoor/outdoor cats - but two of them have no desire to venture out into the cold, scary outdoor world. The smallest cat is, however, the most adventuresome and is constantly trying to escape. She also is the most fearsome hunter despite having been an indoor cat her entire life - on the few occasions she got out for any length of time, she immediately stalked and killed mice and one time a bird. I have ambitions of building an enclosed "catio" for her, so she can enjoy the sun and fresh air but will not be able to terrorize the birds that flock to my feeders.
I love the way you love your animals, Esme. Familial and local. Very interesting about the coyotes. My God-dog lives in the hills in Los Angeles and a lot of the little dogs in the area wear spiky jackets in effort to prevent coyotes from taking them. They look very punk rock.
More on death, how we are undone....I too watch how the wild birds have become dependent on us--our goodwill--and other "things" prey on them. I have held a dying waxwing, and I have watched a Cooper's with the same attention consume the same.💔❤️
I would love to cultivate the same curiosity as your sweet niece, to approach the ultimate unknown like Thelonius Monk wielding ten hammers at the forge of Presence.
The falcons are named Carla and Ecco and this is their second year laying eggs together. Two of the eggs hatched a few days ago and I spend significant time every day watching them, in awe of the way Carla and Ecco care for the tiny chicks.
Two days ago I went on a walk and was taking film photos of every bird I could. I asked most of them if I could take their picture before I did, letting them know my intentions. The robins mostly focused on their work, but there was a mourning dove that posed itself inside a scene for me. A red winged black bird saw me taking photos of geese and flew right up to me, chattering at me until I took its photo too. There was a duck that quacked all me while I took his photo, his bright green head looking dazzling.
I love your writing because I too am in awe of birds and their lives. I also have a lot of death anxiety. My pap is in the ICU right now, healing from a traumatic fall. I'm believing with all of my might that he'll pull through, but his death is also a reality that we can't escape, regardless of what happens next.
This is all to say: thank you for sharing this medicine.
Aris, thank you so much for sharing this! My goodness they're so beautiful. I'm looking forward to keeping an eye on the chicks as they grow. A dear friend and I have been co-watching (across an ocean) the hatching and growing of two Bald Eagles in California (the livestream is here if you'd like to see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4-L2nfGcuE ) The eaglets are now huge, and will fledge fairly soon. I'm so nervous. There were three eaglets, but one was lost to a storm. That was a tough week...
I love your approach to your nature photography. I don't doubt that your pictures carry a note of the respect and collaboration that you foster in, and with, the wild.
I'm so sorry that your dad is in ICU. I'm sure it's been a really stressful time for you. I'm glad to know you're spending time in the wild. That's a good place to be held. I'll hope your dad is comfortable. Feel free to message me, if you ever want to talk.
Wow, thank you, this is very kind :') I'm looking forward to checking out the Eagles. Thank you for sharing this and for reading some of my work. I'm excited to share my bird photos once they're developed!
I don't think it's fair that someone can be extremely talented, write beautiful and intelligent stories, and have British a accident. It's like too much awesome for one person to have, you know?
I've been listening/reading your work for nearly 2 months and it inspired me to record narration for my own stories!
Patrick! You are very generous, thank you. It took me quite some time to be able to hear my own voice without doubling over with cringe, so, I’m glad you can tolerate it :) How wonderful that you’ve been narrating your own work! How are you finding it?
Honestly, I'm enjoying the recording more than writing now! LOL. I used to have a podcast that was an hour long live stream, but I gave it up several months ago. I remember coming to Substack back in February and just lightly poking around the philosophy list and found you. I though, oh now THIS is interesting! I listened to a few of yours and it helped light the spark to start writing again. Now that I narrate each story, I started the podcast up again with the same audio. I even added a little authors commentary on the end where, instead of reading the article, I talk normally and freely. It's super fun and I'm loving it right now. Honestly, I'm not sure I ever would have started it back up again if it hadn't been for your work.
My father, back in the UK, kept a Super-Soaker for the neighborhood cats!
House Sparrows are officially an invasive species here in the US. Nevertheless, when three pairs built nests under my deck a few years ago, I had no choice but to delay a maintenance project until it was Time for Them to Go (Cue: Who Knows Where the Time Goes?).
Here, the relationship between predator and prey is a little different. Although we have some feral cats, they are kept in check by our healthy, fluffy, show-quality coyotes and, in an act of karmic balance, by our avian predators including Bald Eagles and Great Horned Owls.
My reverence for predatory Birds falters, however, when Crows perch on my deck rail looking for baby rabbits in the grass below.
I remember my Grandmother doing the same when I was very young, and thinking how monstrous she was for doing it. Look at me now!!
And yes, feral and farm cats can be great at keeping things in check, it's the wild proliferation of free-roaming domestic cats that are distinctly unwelcomed on our little piece of the countryside. SO exciting that you have Bald Eagles where you are. Have you been watching the Big Bear Eagles livestream?
And, yes, I hear you with the Crows. I caught sight of one of ours winging over the garden with something that looked an awful lot like little bunny ears hanging out of it's beak... Rogues...
I caught one in the act last year. Working in the yard, I heard a blood-curdling squealing behind me and turned to see a Crow making off with a baby bunny. Mama Rabbit appeared and stared at me, pissed:
“What the fuck! Why didn’t you do something!“
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!“
Rogues indeed.
I’m OK when an Osprey flies so low over my house that I can see the expression on the fish’s face - “oh, shit“ - but I’m very protective of the rabbits!
I haven’t been watching that livestream - I have them in the tree across the field! There was a livestream in California a year or two ago that was turned off after an Eagle parent brought back a white cat…
Oh, wow!! I bet that was...arresting, for some viewers! And yes, of course, you have your own livestream. If I could share images here I would share a meme with you, it's of a man sitting quietly at the edge of a river and says underneath "can't talk, watching a livestream" :)
Pianos are an excellent place to stay, JoAnn! I hope you had a wonderful time playing in church today. After 73 years the piano must feel like an extension of you...
Chloe! You are a blessing. Your words are like liquid love, sunset coloured, sweetened with humour , deep wisdom and earthy practicality. Thank you for being Chloe Hope, and for writing wonderful essays and sharing them with us every two weeks. You are a beacon of light.
Thank you for being Josie Rashmi Smith! And for saying such beautiful, and generous, things. It's a joy to have you reading ✨
Your writing is a prayer and a balm and a question, and always leaves me in awe.
Tina, coming from you, that means an awful lot. Thank you.
I listened to how you witness your world to write this beauty of words today. I stared out my living room window, where a leafless Hop Hornbeam stands guard quite literally over the house. It’s naked branches only showing a tiny hint of spring. My Nesting Ball hangs at eye level, you know the one. Grapevine wrapped, globe shaped , like a tiny planet filled with special offerings for our bird friends, as you’ve taught me. A Robin, chooses the fine Birch threading I meticulously shredded, collected from what lay on the forest floor, pleased, she takes flight with a mouthful. Then a Nuthatch, carefully approaches from his hiding place on the other side of the tree trunk ,circumventing, seemly tiptoes. He eyes Ranger fluff, takes his prize, awkwardly maneuvers back , winging away, disappearing into the forest. I hear the melody of your voice. Learned the secrets of your garden, as I watch mine. The dandelions, seed seekers, chocolate egg hunters, and the like. “We each have a lifetime, whatever that may look like, to practice how we approach the things larger than ourselves.” Our little worlds play out in front of us, separately, across an ocean, but together. Thankful for all the “….wise companions along the path”. “Little beings” and bigger ones.
Your nesting ball IS a tiny planet! And if it were my planetary home, I would like to leave on the Ranger continent (even if Nuthatches were trying to relocate it). So many little friends, little teachers, to be found in our respective gardens. So grateful that we get to share across an ocean 🌊♥️🌊
My friend, yet again you take the seemingly everyday and transform it into a sublime and gently healing incantation.
My Sunday will be so much richer as I carry this with me.
🙏
John, you do make me smile. Thank you. Love to you-know-who 🐾
If present, curious
predator must meet spray gun.
May we meet wonder.
...
Perch on a flower,
pounce on a piano, profound.
Significant, all.
Significant, all ❤️ thank you, Marisol
I don't really understand why, but when I got to the part about the baby sparrow I teared up. Thinking of that little life and your respectful homage to it. Beautiful. Thank you. And also, I am totally on board with letting it be known how cats decimate bird populations. The argument that cats are just doing what cats naturally do doesn't hold water. They ( cats) are domesticated species only here because of us. They kill for sport, for fun. And in huge numbers. That message needs to get spread. Cats belong indoors
You know, I still tear up when I think about him. His tiny little body and his perfect face. I don't think I'll ever forget him. And thank you, Mary. It really doesn't hold water, they're an invasive species and they're known to be wiping out huge numbers. It's an insane cultural blindspot. One that gets me in trouble, sometimes, for highlighting, but alas..!
I love my cats, but I also love my bird friends in the yard. So my kitties live the indoor life, although the brave one gets some outdoor time as she doesn't mind being on a harness and leash.
In my area (coastal New England in the U.S.), another non-native predator species that has moved in are coyotes. They took over the ecological niche left when the native wolf population was hunted to extinction many years ago. Mostly, they eat mice, rats, rabbits, and other small mammals - but they have decimated the outdoor cat population in this area. So, most people around here now keep their cats as indoor-only pets.
I felt kind of bad confining my cats to indoors, as I always grew up with free-roaming indoor/outdoor cats - but two of them have no desire to venture out into the cold, scary outdoor world. The smallest cat is, however, the most adventuresome and is constantly trying to escape. She also is the most fearsome hunter despite having been an indoor cat her entire life - on the few occasions she got out for any length of time, she immediately stalked and killed mice and one time a bird. I have ambitions of building an enclosed "catio" for her, so she can enjoy the sun and fresh air but will not be able to terrorize the birds that flock to my feeders.
I love the way you love your animals, Esme. Familial and local. Very interesting about the coyotes. My God-dog lives in the hills in Los Angeles and a lot of the little dogs in the area wear spiky jackets in effort to prevent coyotes from taking them. They look very punk rock.
A catio sounds like a very sweet idea.
I wish there was a “love” button for this. So nourishing.
I wish there was a "love" button for you, Sally :)
Plus I love dandelions and weep as neighbors both sides, each year, poison them. The dandelions don't give up.
Dandelions are the ultimate warriors
More on death, how we are undone....I too watch how the wild birds have become dependent on us--our goodwill--and other "things" prey on them. I have held a dying waxwing, and I have watched a Cooper's with the same attention consume the same.💔❤️
I’m becoming better at observing the complexities of life and death. Not interfering but still observing.
With your deep writings, I elevate a level to observe an observer.
Thank you for sharing.
And what an observationist you are, Jim. Thank you. (And also I suddenly feel very self aware!!) 👀
In your thoughtful and caring hands you have held life and death. Yet, you still find the time to reply to all your commenters.
Thank you Chloe.
Thank you, Jim ❤️
❤️🩹 thank you, Connie
Thank you for sharing your contemplations, and for giving wing to my own. You are a treasure.
Richard, how beautiful! Thank you, thank you :)
I would love to cultivate the same curiosity as your sweet niece, to approach the ultimate unknown like Thelonius Monk wielding ten hammers at the forge of Presence.
Thank you for this beautiful piece. 💕
"to approach the ultimate unknown like Thelonius Monk wielding ten hammers at the forge of Presence" Sandy, yes!! 🙌 Fantastic. Thank you, my friend 💗
The National Aviary in Pittsburgh has a 24/7 live stream of a falcon nest on top of the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh: https://www.aviary.org/birds-habitats/live-streams/
The falcons are named Carla and Ecco and this is their second year laying eggs together. Two of the eggs hatched a few days ago and I spend significant time every day watching them, in awe of the way Carla and Ecco care for the tiny chicks.
Two days ago I went on a walk and was taking film photos of every bird I could. I asked most of them if I could take their picture before I did, letting them know my intentions. The robins mostly focused on their work, but there was a mourning dove that posed itself inside a scene for me. A red winged black bird saw me taking photos of geese and flew right up to me, chattering at me until I took its photo too. There was a duck that quacked all me while I took his photo, his bright green head looking dazzling.
I love your writing because I too am in awe of birds and their lives. I also have a lot of death anxiety. My pap is in the ICU right now, healing from a traumatic fall. I'm believing with all of my might that he'll pull through, but his death is also a reality that we can't escape, regardless of what happens next.
This is all to say: thank you for sharing this medicine.
Aris, thank you so much for sharing this! My goodness they're so beautiful. I'm looking forward to keeping an eye on the chicks as they grow. A dear friend and I have been co-watching (across an ocean) the hatching and growing of two Bald Eagles in California (the livestream is here if you'd like to see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4-L2nfGcuE ) The eaglets are now huge, and will fledge fairly soon. I'm so nervous. There were three eaglets, but one was lost to a storm. That was a tough week...
I love your approach to your nature photography. I don't doubt that your pictures carry a note of the respect and collaboration that you foster in, and with, the wild.
I'm so sorry that your dad is in ICU. I'm sure it's been a really stressful time for you. I'm glad to know you're spending time in the wild. That's a good place to be held. I'll hope your dad is comfortable. Feel free to message me, if you ever want to talk.
And thank you, for sharing your medicine, too!
Wow, thank you, this is very kind :') I'm looking forward to checking out the Eagles. Thank you for sharing this and for reading some of my work. I'm excited to share my bird photos once they're developed!
Paradox has a "dappled light", what a discovery. I hope, too! And thank you for sharing your niece, telling of her rousing "Mull of Kintyre"...
I wish you could have been there for her performance, Kenneth. It was Grammy worthy, truly.
I don't think it's fair that someone can be extremely talented, write beautiful and intelligent stories, and have British a accident. It's like too much awesome for one person to have, you know?
I've been listening/reading your work for nearly 2 months and it inspired me to record narration for my own stories!
Patrick! You are very generous, thank you. It took me quite some time to be able to hear my own voice without doubling over with cringe, so, I’m glad you can tolerate it :) How wonderful that you’ve been narrating your own work! How are you finding it?
Honestly, I'm enjoying the recording more than writing now! LOL. I used to have a podcast that was an hour long live stream, but I gave it up several months ago. I remember coming to Substack back in February and just lightly poking around the philosophy list and found you. I though, oh now THIS is interesting! I listened to a few of yours and it helped light the spark to start writing again. Now that I narrate each story, I started the podcast up again with the same audio. I even added a little authors commentary on the end where, instead of reading the article, I talk normally and freely. It's super fun and I'm loving it right now. Honestly, I'm not sure I ever would have started it back up again if it hadn't been for your work.
Oh that makes me so happy to hear, Patrick. And I love the idea of having a little space at the end, just to talk freely… you’ve got me thinking!
My father, back in the UK, kept a Super-Soaker for the neighborhood cats!
House Sparrows are officially an invasive species here in the US. Nevertheless, when three pairs built nests under my deck a few years ago, I had no choice but to delay a maintenance project until it was Time for Them to Go (Cue: Who Knows Where the Time Goes?).
Here, the relationship between predator and prey is a little different. Although we have some feral cats, they are kept in check by our healthy, fluffy, show-quality coyotes and, in an act of karmic balance, by our avian predators including Bald Eagles and Great Horned Owls.
My reverence for predatory Birds falters, however, when Crows perch on my deck rail looking for baby rabbits in the grass below.
🙏
I remember my Grandmother doing the same when I was very young, and thinking how monstrous she was for doing it. Look at me now!!
And yes, feral and farm cats can be great at keeping things in check, it's the wild proliferation of free-roaming domestic cats that are distinctly unwelcomed on our little piece of the countryside. SO exciting that you have Bald Eagles where you are. Have you been watching the Big Bear Eagles livestream?
And, yes, I hear you with the Crows. I caught sight of one of ours winging over the garden with something that looked an awful lot like little bunny ears hanging out of it's beak... Rogues...
I caught one in the act last year. Working in the yard, I heard a blood-curdling squealing behind me and turned to see a Crow making off with a baby bunny. Mama Rabbit appeared and stared at me, pissed:
“What the fuck! Why didn’t you do something!“
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!“
Rogues indeed.
I’m OK when an Osprey flies so low over my house that I can see the expression on the fish’s face - “oh, shit“ - but I’m very protective of the rabbits!
I haven’t been watching that livestream - I have them in the tree across the field! There was a livestream in California a year or two ago that was turned off after an Eagle parent brought back a white cat…
Oh, wow!! I bet that was...arresting, for some viewers! And yes, of course, you have your own livestream. If I could share images here I would share a meme with you, it's of a man sitting quietly at the edge of a river and says underneath "can't talk, watching a livestream" :)
Sharing was successful. I now a beautiful image in my mind and a warm glow in my heart.
Sometimes, words are worth a thousand pictures.
🙏
I made it to pianos and decided to stay there. 73 years later, I'm still headed to church today...to play the piano. Thank you!
Pianos are an excellent place to stay, JoAnn! I hope you had a wonderful time playing in church today. After 73 years the piano must feel like an extension of you...