Someone this morning shared how the presence of a crow, who stayed on a yard fence for a week, after the death of her mother, gave her comfort, feeling the presence of her mother through the presence of the crow. Two days ago I was walking companion Border Collie Mandy, and as we came to the the intersection of two neighbor streets, behind our home, a crow silently swooped down from a tree to my right, and dipped down over our heads, over the top of my head, possibly six feet above it. It then arched back up a little higher and landed on another tree, on a limb close to Mandy and me. It sat there in silence. This corner was the corner of a house in which a neighbor had passed over in the last couple months.

It was a strange "passing over" my head of the crow, as it was high enough not to feel the wind from its wings yet I believe I had felt the "energy" of its wings brush and fluff the space above the top of my head.

As Mandy and I rounded the corner of this tree and the neighbor's yard, a second crow came flying over my right shoulder and our heads and silently landed in the same tree. As I looked above, still walking, a third crow silently flew over head and landed in that tree. All three silent!

I stopped; we stopped, and watched them a while. Their silence was penetrating, as also feeling wide in the shared space of the corner of the yard and the "t" intersection of those two country lanes. I saw a fourth crow on the ground in a yard across the street on which we now stood, quietly, pecking the earth, feeding itself, seeking  hidden morels in the grass. 

The three crows in the tree moved sparingly, appearing to enjoy our company, as we we enjoyed their presence. Not much was needed to be said.

Eventually I thought I should say something before we went our way, as they also appeared to be listening or maybe just expecting something. You just get those feelings at times – as I now hear a crow outside my window cawing, possibly, probably, verifying this observation and comment as I write.

So, I told the crows things such as: how good it was to have their company; maybe I told them, how good they were looking with their black sheen; and thanking them for coming and visiting us, and spending quiet time with us at that time and place. Almost as if thanking them, now that I think about it, for being "guardians" of this space, watching over it.

They "protect" the silence - but also like to hear the human voice, sparingly as I have learned - only speaking themselves, cawing - at the right time and place.

What do you do when the crows - or a crow - caws, outside your window or door?

If you ignore him or her, he or she will ignore you.

If you go outside, and the crow or crows fly away, they weren't talking to you.

If they stay, but are somewhat at a distance, they may be merely amused or checking you out from your appearance into their "space" - of that moment - and intrusion into their conversation.

If they fly closer to you, and tease you with "silence" they are "listening" to you.

If they fly close and chatter one way or another, especially looking your way, or do strange or unusual actions in front of you to get your attention they are telling you something.

Listen!

This morning as I was working at my desk, I heard The Crow calling in the pine trees in front of hour home and office window. I stepped outside and could not see him, but only hear him as he was close to the property edge. So, I went outside and talked to him. I said, "Where are you"? several times, and he immediately flew to a tree nearby – and looked at me.

If you are looking at the picture included in this post, you will see some trees on the far right. He was in one of those trees. You can also see the house roof in the lower, bottom corner of the picture.

This is a picture of him taken in the last six months. I did not have a camera or phone to catch a picture of him this morning. In this prior photo of him you can see him at the very top of the center pine tree. He looks like the very tip of the pine tree, as he stood on its very peak. You can actually see a small curve of his body with him facing and looking, at that moment, to your and my left.

This morning though he was much, much closer in in the foreground trees to the right. He had in his beak a long twig. This is the first time over a couple decades living here that I have seen a crow with a twig in its beak, and was astonished as he appeared to be pointing it at me, moving it as if in gestures – like an orchestra conductor, or maybe a "teacher" directing students with an old blackboard pointer stick. It was also interesting since the twig he chose to bring to me had a fork: two branches at its tip shooting out into two directions. 

While I was looking at him, probably in some amazement, his partner, who at times accompanies him, came flying onto the property, and landed close to the road in the pine trees at the far edge of the property - observing. I suspect it was his mate; at least it felt that way at the time, and as I write this.

I have attempted to feed him when he has shown up over the months since my battle with Legionella pneumonia, late last summer and fall of 2018. He never takes the food, and I have learned he only comes to "give." To give messages or notice of something going on in the inner or outer world I had not been yet aware of or to which I had not been paying attention.

I went back inside anyway and got some cereal grains to offer him. When I returned outside, he had gone. More often than not, in the past the crows would always wait for me to bring the food. But this has been his pattern over the last year or so, when I offer food to him and any other crows that accompany him.

This morning I was trying to figure out what to write about. I started with a certain experience, not crow related; but related to social issues currently going on and how they mirror our inner universal lives – as above, so below principle. The writing was not flowing, and I stopped short of finishing it, just as one of the branches of the "Y" on the tip of his twig was short. I realized I was to take the path of the longer twig tip, and write about him and nature – our need, power and ability to be in harmony with nature, if we would just take the time and listen. How to be peaceful in this time of external social turmoil.

Offer to nature and its creatures what we can or have! Treat them right. Treat the environment right. Elect leaders who respect nature.

Importantly, listen to what nature offers us – taking us outside to be in the trees, in the breeze and in the light of the sun.

It gives more than takes.

Morning of February, 7, 2020

And as an addendum, I add, it came to me so clearly after originally writing this that the crow's gesture was a warning, "Beware of those speaking with fork tongues." Our intuition understands more than our minds, as to the meaning of the secrets and messages of nature.

So appropriate on the day after a senate trial in which truth was covered up with words of rationalizations, denials, projections and falsehoods. - by a body of leaders who are suppose to be our most noble.  So obvious they were the "wagging of tongues" - or tongues wagging - as the crow wagged the twig at me in warning, and as he crowed twice just now writing this in apparent agreement - returning it appears just to verify.

It is said when you speak reality or the truth and a crow calls - caws - the universe is verifying the reality or truth of what you are sayin. Crows are recognized as deliverers of messages, warnings and healing solutions.

To speak the truth is noble and courageous. Only one Republican leader of the past-noble body of senators "stood up" to speak for truth.

Speaking the truth is the highest quality of true leadership. Not stage-man-ship!

What I have learned over the years, falsehood spoken by a leader only leads to deeper and deeper falsehood. God may work through "imperfect" men and women, as many are currently saying; but he does not work through a leader or leaders who speaks falsehood and spins illusions of greatness.