Botox And Birds

You are looking at my immediate reaction to having just received my latest round of fifteen Botox injections in the muscles of my neck for cervical dystonia.

I would like to tell you a tale.  A birds' tale...

After I arrive home from my neurologist's office, I fill the two water dishes.  It's quiet in the backyard but very windy and there are ripples being made in the water.  I change my clothes then come out of the bedroom and just stand in front of the glass door gazing out...

I notice on the wall by the cholla my first cactus wren of the season.  He makes me laugh because his feathers are being blown so hard he looks like a fuzzy ball. He also seems to have an itch somewhere and can't seem to scratch it.

A group of finches come to satisfy their thirst.  The cactus wren chases them off (they are so mean to the finches) but then leaves. 

One finch comes back. This little guy stands perched on the edge of the dish looking around in all directions.  I grin again.  His head is craned so high he looks like an ostrich, with a long neck and scrawny legs. By now, I'm laughing out loud. He finally takes a drink and flies off.

Out of nowhere, in flies a gorgeous little oriole.  "Shit," I whisper.  Now, I think: 'I don't have my camera set up.  That's okay.  Just enjoy him.'

I watch as the black and orange fellow frolics in the water, drinks a little, poses on the rock then flies up into the ocotillo.  The finches come back to the dish...but the oriole will have none of that and chases them away. 

Mr. Oriole then flies back into the ocotillo where I watch him for the next two minutes, hopping up and down, from one branch to another, as if in a furniture store trying to find the most comfortable sofa. 

He flies away to the north, and my eyes follow him.  It's at that point they fall upon the hummingbird feeder and my good friend, Zippy.  I gaze at him for a good long while as he drinks the nectar.  When he flies off, I see his gorget is glimmering purple.  I smile at the mere thought of having seen my buddy today.
 
The backyard falls silent again.

For those brief minutes, the joy those birds brought into my life made the pain melt away.
 
Sometimes life is simple.  Sometimes that's all it needs to be.  I'm learning.