Gifts

the REST of the week #121

Does the weight of the world with its suffering ever make you reticent to rest and receive life’s little gifts?

Photo by Rodolfo Mari on Unsplash (I will update photo as soon as I have one from my sister’s trip)

It is OK to go after those gifts and open them.

Here’s a page from my sister’s and brother-in-law’s play book (shared with permission).

FYI: Darchelle and Brian live with the intentionality of those who know that life is fleeting. Brian has ALS, a nervous system disease that gets worse over time. The average survival time for those diagnosed with ALS is 3 years—and it feels like a miracle that Brian is still with us some 10 years later.

Gone are the days of marathons and long hikes. But they are still chasing birds all over the state of Washington (some years coming in #1 in the state). They are quite a team—Darchelle managing the wheelchair and being Brian’s hands on the scope and camera, and Brian recognizing the calls and silhouettes and creatively applying his expertise.

Here’s Darchelle’s reply when I texted to find out how their pelagic trip went.

(f you don’t have any serious birders in your life (let me tell you, you are missing out) you may not know what pelagics are. Here is a quick definition from Cool Green Science:

“Pelagics are a special kind of birding, much like gull-watching at the dump or perusing the local sewage ponds. But instead of puzzling over molt plumage or going cross-eyed trying to spot rails through the reeds, the aim of a pelagic is to venture onto the high seas in search of seabirds.”)

Me: How was the trip—did you get the birds you were hoping for?

Darchelle: The trip was unbelievable… EPIC. Beyond epic in the birding world—as they said on the boat, it was like getting all the species you might see in 5 years of pelagic trips in one boat trip!

There were only three that were already very unlikely to see (out of season or range) that we “missed.” But otherwise we got everything possible plus one rarity and three “mega rarities”.

Last year was a good year and in the 18-20 trips that they did, only two mega rarities were seen the whole season (during two different trips).

One of our mega was only the seventh state record in almost 50 years of pelagic trips.

{Regarding] another one of the rarities—there are only 3000 or so in the world. (They were nearly extinct several years ago, down to 15 birds, but a few countries and universities got together and worked hard to reverse those numbers. So super extra special that we came upon one with prolonged views!)

Everyone was/is still kind of in shock. These kinds of trip outcomes don’t happen! [smiley and and folded hands emojis].

Brian was satisfied with 12 new birds. Over the years he has gotten 10 to 15 birds on a trip. This trip we got 19.

Most importantly, these birds showed up nicely on Brian’s side of the boat with some maneuvering of the skipper and one of the spotters who stayed close to Brian so he could get on them quickly.

Two of the mega rarities were excellent. Close-up, naked eye views for him.

I think I’ve hit on all the main amazing points—of course we had some really beautiful people on the boat with us—we all had a great time together and everyone was making sure Brian could see and such.

Oh, one more thing—regarding the weather. Our timing was perfect, almost down to the hour. Any earlier we would have had more fog. Plus a waterfront had just moved through. They were hoping it would move through in time for us to go and it did.

Any later, we would have encountered more wind and higher swells.

For us the sea was almost flat and often glassy. We did get some rain, but short lived and manageable… And without the rain we would have gone further out to sea and probably missed one of the mega rarities (there was heavy rain on the shelf so we didn’t go all the way out).

The night after our trip, the waterfront came in and so they had to cancel the pelagic trip going out 36 hours later….

***

Brian uses non-invasion positive pressure ventilation and dust be extremely careful not to aspirate when he swallows. You might say he is dying. But then, aren’t we all?

We are alive now and life is precious.

May you notice the gifts that come your way. May you rest a moment in them. And may your rest be sweet.

Alicia