Image: painting by La Voliera, acrylic on gift box, 2 x 3 in

I like your painting very much. It seems familiar to me. What do you call it?

I call it, Bird.

Just Bird?

I suppose I could call it, Bird Flying.

Where is the bird flying to?

How about, Bird Flying Home?

I like that, but it is very dark.

I should add, Bird Flying Home at Night.

Then why all the white around it?

It is, I confess, Bird Flying Home at Night Beneath the Clouds.

Look, the border! It’s now black.

The clouds have parted so that the stars may shine through.

I see. Will you sit with me a little while longer?

For a little while longer I will call it, Happy Bird. This bird, who is very small, is also very happy to be home. She had been traveling with a good friend, the Whale. The two of them were on an adventure together. The Whale’s hump on his back provided a safe haven for her to rest upon as they circumnavigated the globe. The oceans, I can tell you, are so vast that any little bird would surely drown if it were to attempt such a journey alone, but this brave little bird was able to touch every inch of the globe, both on land and on sea. Can you imagine that? Every last inch. While at sea, the Whale introduced her to all of his oceanic friends, and she taught them all a song about the great travels she had experienced with her old friend, the Owl. They would sing and dance to it from shore to shore. And at each, she would hop off and meet new land-fairing friends, and they, too, would sing and dance, and make up new songs she would later share with the Whale and the rest. Before long, every living thing in every sea, and every living thing on every land, would come to learn the same melody that reminded each of them of the tales she had shared about her old friend, the Owl. And, as you can see, the little bird couldn’t wait to get back to tell an old friend, who lived in this very tree, all about it. It is the same dear friend she knows had always watched over her from the afar, through the clouds, which he parted in order to light a way home for his beloved, Bird.

Hoo?

Tweet!

—
Thank you, Carol, for joining me on this journey.