Eye-Level Living And the Owls Above Our Head

It's baby owl season! The owl tree (nursery) where I watched several generations of owls move from tiny, wide-eyed fur balls to parenthood of their own crashed down last spring. (Yes, I cried! One bird was lost, and another was sent to a raptor rehabilitation center.)

I often hear owls, so I knew that other nests were around. Recently, I discovered a nest behind our house with three owls. I've watched them go from packed together high up in the tree, wide-eyed, peering down on the world, to branching, their first wobbly tries at flying.

Last week, I was convinced one had died! From my vantage point, I could see a feather rustling in the wind and a body that looked toppled over a branch- the only movement was the feathers. When I circled back 45 minutes later to see from a different angle, the bird had not moved and continued to be eerily still. A few hours later, I went back with binoculars to see. The bird was sitting up, looking around. She (He?) had been napping! This morning, I saw another sleepy one tucked into the crook of a branch, resting her head, oblivious to the world!

When I saw the book What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds by Jennifer Ackerman, I had to read it. I LOVE the owls in our neighborhood (Great Horned Owls and a Western Screech Owl, which likes to hang out in a tree in our backyard!)

Ackerman tells a story in the book that I have been unable to stop thinking about. A researcher was studying the migratory pattern of owls in Europe. There is a particular town (I think it was in Germany) where hundreds of owls regularly migrate through. The researcher took a group of elementary school students to count owls. While out with the children, a woman came up to ask what all these kids were doing out of school, craning their necks skyward. He explained he was a researcher, and owls were migrating through their town. She said, "I've always wanted to see an owl, but I've never seen one!" He said, "There are 647 owls right now sitting in the trees above your head."

What irony! Hundreds of owls were resting, rustling, calling, flying, and being just above her head. What she wanted to experience was present, if only she paused to look up.

She was busy living at the level of her eyesight (like most of us do). She had mail to check and a grocery list to purchase. Her world was contained by what she could see. She wasn't looking up because 647¹ owls seem hard to miss.

This story feels instructive, haunting, and endearing all at the same time.

What am I longing for, wishing I could see, that might be literally (or figuratively) just above my head?

I try to look up often on my walks. Over time, I've learned there is so much to see just over my head that if I'm not intentional about looking, I will miss it. How much more true is this with what we can't see—ideas, angels, saints, ancestors, and God?

Is there an angel just over my shoulder?

Do the saints and ancestors watch, listen, and offer guidance?

Is the wind Mother God's gentle caress?

I relate to the eye-level lady, who was so busy caring for what needed care that she missed the 647 owls in the trees above her head.

Owls are in the trees- are we pausing to look up and see?

A Blessing for Looking Up.

May we look up! When we find ourselves being eye-level only people, may we stop, take a breath, look up, and see a cloud of witnesses, owlets, blue herons, and twinkling stars. May we sense what lies just out of reach, angels, saints, and our ancestors, who are whispering…look up and see! It's all here, around, above, and beside- may we be people who look up and see!

Christine Valters Paintner is one of my favorite authors. I'm sharing a short passage from her book The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk with Us Towards Holiness.

“Writer bell hooks describes angels as bearing witness: “They are the guardian spirits who watch, protect, and guide us throughout our lives. Sometimes they take a human form. At other times they are pure spirit-unseen, unimaginable, just forever present…They are able to assist us in our spiritual growth. Unconditional lovers of the human spirit, they were there to help us face reality without fear.”

Christine Valters Paintner-

The Love of Thousands: How Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Walk with Us Towards Holiness.

• How might you notice angels (saints or ancestors) this week?

Photo by Mike Hensley on Unsplash

Listen to the poem “Angels” by Mary Oliver here.

As you listen and read, notice if a word or phrase catches your attention. Gently take those words into the sanctuary of your soul. Notice if they hold an invitation, challenge, or lesson for you. Stay attentive to them this week.

"Angels," Mary Oliver

You might see an angel anytime

and anywhere. Of course you have

to open your eyes to a kind of

second level, but it's not really

hard. The whole business of

what's reality and what isn't has

never been solved and probably

never will be. So I don't care to

be too definite about anything.

I have a lot of edges called Perhaps

and almost nothing you can call

Certainty. For myself, but not

for other people. That's a place

you just can't get into, not

entirely anyway, other people's

heads.

I'll just leave you with this.

I don't care how many angels can

dance on the head of a pin. It's

enough to know that for some people,

they exist and that they dance.

1. I can’t recall the exact number, but it was a lot! I listened to this book and could not find where this story was in the numbered chapters!