In recent weeks, we've enjoyed our very own "pet" bird -- cage-less, yet making many close visits.
Not knowing "his" gender, I gave "him" a gender-neutral name, Perch!
Perch made frequent visits and often stayed for hours at a time. Usually, he was most content perching on the end of some recently broken branches on a massive tree just beyond our living room windows. Occasionally, he would actually sit on the balcony edge -- right in front of me yet just beyond my reach.
I'd sit very still on my wooden bench and he'd sit very still on the concrete edging and we'd have a lovely visit.
You might notice that I'm speaking in the past tense.
We're just ending the Harmattan season -- when the dust from the Sahara desert travels across two countries to the ocean's edge. It puts a lot of grime and grit in the air, not to mention our lungs.
But the weather has made a sudden shift this week. (Another gift from the creator -- one evening I could see that a storm was a-brewing when the trees started rustling so I suggested to Jim that we go out on the balcony to watch what would happen. After 6 weeks without a drop of rain ... we had a sudden, brief-but-fantastic deluge! I leaned out over the balcony railing, "Titanic-style," and let the rains soak me. Of course, Jim, being the practical one, suggested that I was being covered in mud because the rain was mixing with the air's dirt! Well, it was a brief, romantic moment! :-) )
So, the next morning the air was clearer and the sky blue-er than it's been since early November. And, since then, ... Perch has not returned.
I look for him every morning before we leave for work. And I keep one eye toward his favorite branch throughout the evening hours. I miss my new little friend. But I am grateful for the gift of wonder and worship that he provided me!
It's connected to something Brian McLaren wrote in A Generous Orthodoxy --
"I feel (not every single moment, but often) that I am carrying around this hilarious secret: that I actually own all things, that all things are mine -- because I am Christ's, ... and God allows me to have things in the way that matters most. Not by having them in my legal possession ... but by having them in my spiritual possession by gratefully seeing them, gratefully knowing and cherishing them."
Even though he may not return, I am still blessed by Perch and the very
personal gift that God 
gave to me for a short season.
