Good Morning, Owl

I did not grow up in a city. For the past twenty-five years, however, I’ve lived in one. Two different cities, not very large, but large enough for this wild soul to feel the loss of something significant: the more-than-human.

So early this morning as I laid in bed, surrounded by darkness and the still-sleepy manmade world, I was elated to hear for the first time in my fifteen years in this particular place, an owl.

Good morning, owl. Please stay awhile. You may perch yourself in the mulberry tree out back and hunt from its branches. Don’t let us humans scare you away. We need you more than we know.