I have lived in the Ozarks for most of my adult life and am never prepared for the beauty Spring brings. It’s an over-night event…..the blooms materialize as the next sun comes up and all about the yard are splashes of gorgeous color.

Each year I take pictures of the bushes, trees and flowers……each year thinking they are prettier than ever. Many of them are looking like me……kind of grown out of their intended shapes to display some scars over the storms they’ve had to stand up to. Nature is much like us for we are made from the soil and therefore have a kinship like no other.

A strange thing happened one April that Rocky had mentioned to me about a Cardinal who fell in love with the mirror on his big truck. Every-time he drove to where the truck was parked, a Cardinal would be looking and kissing the image he saw in the mirror. One time I went on a delivery with him and sure enough….there was the Cardinal hovering around the mirror. We neither had seen anything like it before.

As we pulled into the parking area (on our return) we didn’t have the engine shut off before here came Mr. Cardinal. It was a mystery to us and no one we talked to had ever witnessed such unusual behavior. After a while we both forgot about it and life went on. Three Spring-times have come and gone since Rocky went to Heaven. I was working in the berm out front recently and when I stood up to rest my back I noticed a flash of red.

I could hardly believe my eyes. There was Mr. Redbird at the mirror on our mini-van fluttering about and enjoying a rendezvous with the mirror. (Of course, not the same bird as before.) Rocky quickly came to mind and while I spent a few moments reminiscing, all was quiet. The silence was finally broken by a lone dove singing from the top of our big oak out front.

It was just a moment but a moment I believe Rocky was very near. Call me silly, simple or crazy…….I believe.

Essentially Esther