Written December 2020. A long time coming...!
I would like to introduce you all, my through the screen friends, to my behind the screen friends. Please meet our 2020 resident little pardalote family, who have been busy variously nesting, flying, perching, hatching, hovering, hanging, hopping, feeding and "whit-whit"-ing and "tsch-tsch-tsch"ing outside the window behind my computer screen. I have been very grateful for all of you this past year my friends, both through the screen, and behind the screen.
I decided not to edit this first video as an exercise in not pandering to our desires for instant gratification. (In fact I also waited significantly longer to catch this lovely little hover.) Wait for it....... Enjoy the breeze in the bushes, and the *ahem* steadiness of my camera work. Aaaaaaand... (There is just one hover, so you can stop watching after pardalote departs stage right (or is it stage left...?). Or you can continue to the end, and enjoy listening to the "whit-whit" and the "tsch-tsch-tsch".)
I believe our little friends are spotted pardalotes. In researching pardalotes, I found this beautiful and sad piece about the unique nature of pardalotes and the broken and disappearing niche that they are holding onto amidst the ongoing destruction of their environment - our environment. So I am glad that this family have found a niche near us.
It was lovely to spend some time to just focus on my little feathered friends who have been such constantly intermittent companions these days in my makeshift lockdown Zoom office in the "palace"*, rather than feeling like I should be attending to a million things on the to do list. It was also really special to have a chance to get an extended really good look at my mostly very fast moving flitting friends by snapshotting them in the moment. Sometimes it feels important to prioritise such things. Slowing down. Taking a moment, a pause. Directing attention and spending time in appreciation of beauty and life. Soul nourishment. Especially when life is especially crazy and hectic, chaotic or unpredictable, or missing some of the special things in life usually present like company and connection IRL...
It has been a crazy year, that's for sure. A year sometimes for hanging on, and for holding on, like my little pardalote friends.
Hanging on and holding on for things to settle down, a chance to catch up on what on earth is going on anyway. A year for hanging on and holding on to all that is dear and precious, to all that matters. A year for hanging on and going along with the ride and seeing where it takes us, as unexpected twists and turns just keep on appearing. Hanging on and holding on to hope against fear of insanity prevailing. Hanging on and holding on to the feeling that maybe, just maybe, the tide really is turning. Hanging on and holding on to the vision of all that is good, growing. And hanging on and holding on to the ever growing and strengthening networks of people that are all agents for change, in so many ways. Including you all, my dear friends through the screen.
I'm still kind of figuring out the "whit-whit". It feels protective of the young, still growing in the nest. It sounds like an alarm. Sometimes it is constant! So then I wonder if it means something else... Perhaps it means many things. Maybe it's about where to find good food, or heading back to the nest, or maybe it's just about keeping tabs on the family - "I'm here", "I'm here", "I'm here", "Where are you?" (Check out the close up video further down to see what you think.)
For the previous 4 years of living here in our beautiful, simple, quiet bush home in Lal Lal, we didn't feel the need to connect the home internet, and just used mobile data for our internet requirements, which for those previous years, was plenty. 2020, the year of COVID-19 and lockdowns, changed all that of course. Lockdowns and separation from loved ones haven't been fun, and the year has brought other challenges, but we have been overall relatively really very lucky here, while many in other places closer and further away have had a very much harder year in so so many ways. And it's not over yet.
It has been a year for allowing and practising self-compassion, when needed amongst the challenges the year has brought, and for always remembering the greater perspective and the many things we have to be grateful for, and for looking for ways to try to support others from afar, even when that has also sometimes been hard due to the limitations of lockdowns.
Here it's been a year of working through technology struggles amongst the other challenges the year has presented, and a year of much gratitude for same technology. We are so lucky.
Computers, phone, internet, Zoom have this year given me the opportunity to continue online (after some initial troubleshooting, let's call it) with my Ballarat Good Grief group, after we were no longer able to meet in person after our first weeks of meeting. I have been able to join in the weekly meetings of the awesome Act on Climate collective since they went online, and I have organised monthly meetings of the Ballarat Climate Action Network. After completing the 10 Steps of the Good Grief program with our Ballarat group, I was then able to run two more rounds of the program as a fundraiser for Act on Climate, and I'm now also currently undertaking the first extended facilitator training to further extend my skills of Good Grief facilitation. (Good Grief has been run online on Zoom since before Zoom was the big thing it has this year become!)
All in all, despite distance, restrictions, lockdowns, for me 2020 has been a year for making and strengthening connections. Perhaps the challenges to this have made it ever more important to put the effort in. And while online connection is amazing when that's all we have, it definitely also reminds us just how very special our connections in real life, in 3D, in close proximity, really are.
So here's to keeping perspective and to keeping connected - however we can, moment by moment. Here's to hanging on and holding on, and to compassion - for both ourselves and for others.
And here's to keeping tabs on each other - "I'm here", "I'm here", "I'm here", "Where are you?"
Bless you all my through the screen friends. And my behind the screen friends too.
Plus, spot our dear friend "whit whit" bird in much lovelier surrounds, viewed instead while outside in the fresh air. Ah. Outside. Not to be taken for granted, being outside, in fresh air. Breathe it in.
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