Good morning. 🕊️🕊️🕊️
24 May 2026
Hmm… I still have a hoodie draped over the back of my side chair. I should probably hang it in the closet, because I definitely won’t have the urge to grab it on the way out the door for a few months. It is still spring, though, and there could always be an odd temperature drop. We’ve lived in Louisiana for well over twenty years now, and I don’t recall any freezing temperatures in May — but it did get close in 2019, on May 4th, when the temperature dropped to a frigid 34°F. This late in May, though, I think it’s safe to put my hoodie away.
Uh‑oh, it’s time to feed Charlie. I’ll be back.
Charlie and I are baching it for a while. My wife is away. We’d only been home from our trips to Arkansas and Oklahoma for six days when an early‑morning call had her packing again. She headed out yesterday morning for Mobile, Alabama. We tried to board Charlie so I could go with her, but being Memorial Day weekend — and on such short notice — that plan fell flat.
It was tragedy that sent my wife rushing off. A young niece lost her husband just after giving birth to their daughter. I won’t share the details, but it was sudden and completely unexpected — the kind of loss that hits with a “this can’t be real” shock that knocks a person’s world apart. My wife went to be by her side, to help her navigate the aftermath of this terrible, terrible event, and to try to assuage the anguish in our niece’s heart.
Life is thinner than we like to admit. One moment you’re moving through the small routines of an ordinary day, and the next, everything tilts. It doesn’t take much — a phone call, a breath, a heartbeat — for the whole world to change. That’s the fragile truth of it, and all we can do is hold on to each other while we have the chance.
“We live in the shelter of each other.” — Irish proverb
#photo #photography #wildlife #nature #bird #birds #birding #birdwatching #birdphotography #morning #pigeon #rockpigeon #dove #rockdove #tragedy #spring #life