The "pious"

I love birds.

They are friends since I was a little girl, and I remember wining my first drawing prize (I was 8 !) with a drawing called "bird paradise", where I drew all the birds I loved,

From the black crow of the Swiss plains where I lived to the multicolor parrots I already dreamt of.

I don't remember exactly when I started to consider their appearance and attitude as signs for my own life... 

But they are part of my thinking and my decision making since a long time.

I remember a winter day where I was desperate, too much on my plate with a difficult life... And I asked for a "sign" from up there that I was on the good road

In French by the way sign and swan are pronounced the same way, even if they are written differently (signe et cygne)

I did not get a swan,

Buti did get my sign

in the afternoon I heard a strange noise upstairs in my room. And when I got there I found the strangest pigeon , a beautiful black bird with strange red eyes, taping gently at my window. He was obviously freezing , and had simply decided to stop at my place to ask for help.

I gave him food and water, and spent the afternoon working upstairs instead of in my office, to keep an eye on him.

And after a good snack and a long nap, during which he sometimes opened an eye and gently "roucouled" to me, 

He simply left.

And I never saw him again

And it s still a joke I have with my guardian angel about his habit to send black pigeons when he was asked for a swan-sign.

I love the idea that birds work at helping us with our life.

A long time ago, I had an affair with a guy I did not really love but, well, I was alone since several years, raising my son alone, and I felt relieved to go out sometimes and be still considered as a woman instead of just a mother.

But I knew I did not love him and I was in fact waiting time - his and mine

One evening, I was heading home in my car from work, and he called me to set the next week end we were to spend together.

I was stuck in a traffic jam on a bridge over the Seine, the large river that crosses Paris

And as I was answering the phone, I saw on my side two ducks taking off from the river, and the image and the light were beautiful.

And at the minute I said "allo", I suddenly saw one of the ducks turn abruptly, and go straight to the opposite direction of his fellow.

And I realized I was just through with this story and had to turn right to another direction too.

I broke up that night and it was such a relief that I really felt free as the duck I had watched fly away in Paris red sky.

I trust birds to guide me.

I love to imagine the busy office of "birds signs" in heaven, with an angel dutifully answering the calls of all the busy earth-linked guardian angels asking for the needed signs for their humans

"Yes, two swans for tonight at Sevres? Ah sorry we are out of swans right now, too much demand. I can give you two cock robin, they are on duty today. What ? Too small? Oh, yes, if your human is short sighted we have to go for a larger model sure. Well, I have two ducks available... Yes ? No don t ask for too complicated, they are union registered and the lady duck is very picky about what she accepts to do. Ok, a soft taking off, and a u turn. Yeah, I think it fits their contracts. I ll check and call you later. Oh, by the way, for the Wolves, I have checked with my general animal signs department supervisor. He is firm on that : no way to do that in Paris, you have to send your human somewhere else. Yes, we do have a local office in New Mexico, why ? Sure  I'll give them a call"

Etc..

Today my guardian angel was pretty good with the local bird FX supervisor.

I was arriving in Santa Rosa, in New Mexico, driving my yeti (my white truck)

And I was pretty emotional because I had seen pictures of a good friend there before,

And I was happy to follow his apache path there.

And just as I arrived near the Santa Rosa exit on the highway,

Thanking everybody up there for having helped me to get there safe and giving me the chance to see that land I have dreamed of for so long,

I saw that in the sky:

Yes you have to have good eyes to see them, for the picture was taken with my phone, and the birds are really small.

But here they are.

A strange ballet in the sky of black and white birds,

Flying together in a way I had never seen before

Like a dancing white cloud.

It was beautiful.

 I don t know what those birds are,

But I'll never forget their welcome flight over my path, in Santa Rosa.