Friday, December 13th, 2013

Two Jewels In The Drizzle

Burnaby, British Columbia

I guess it was an Otter in the water.

As I was about to turn a corner at Willard and 10^th Ave. I heard a splash in the creek next to me.  I came to a halt and waited for whatever to surface.  Not all creatures walk, like me.  Some swim.

Sure enough out pops his head and off he goes for his slinky swim.  He must be a member of the weasel family.  Hard to tell.  At one point he poked his head out and stared.  And so did I  - stare at him.  His stillness was better than mine.  I couldn’t fool him with my static pose.  My breath could be seen, a misty exhaust emanated from the mouth.

I take these things as a little game.  I like to imitate, even mock the birds at times trying to see if there is any communication.  I attempt it with crows and hawks.  I’m sure they concluded that I’m a weirdo.

After this long pause our creek fellow submerged, then continued on gliding through a greenish snow melt as I kept an eye on his moving pelt.  It was a curvy motion he took.  I couldn’t do that even if I fit into the creek.  Our friend the Otter (I guess) is just sleek and slick.  He made my day.  I would have stayed on, staring, but I had things to do and besides, the drizzle drove me to continue forging ahead until a new encounter came about.

Yes, and that did occur.  A mustached man with baseball cap delivering newspapers just came right out and started talking, “You know they say it never rains in LA,”  (I didn’t know that) “well, I’ve got a song about how it always rains in BC.”  He then proceeded to recite his poem.  I thanked him for that.  It was a gem of a poem – his poem.  What a treat!  That doesn’t happen too often, that someone out of the blue starts sharing poetry to a stranger.  Perhaps the donning of dhoti makes you look receptive.

The drizzle thickened and drove me on, otherwise I might have heard more.  His newspapers needed distributing.  “Hare Krishna, friend.”

Multiple duties blessed this day but the highlights were the Otter and the poet.

May the Source be with you!

5 KM