A Sacred Time

When I was nine or ten the city I was living in was periodically spraying the local trees with, what I now know to be DDT. All I knew at that age was that they were using "big orange trucks" and that their spraying was killing the insect eating birds (I did tell my parents what was happening but was dismissed since I was a child and had no proof). At that time, my family and I had a reputation of rescuing baby or injured animals. After one such round of spraying a neighbor woman brought a sick robin to me and asked me to care for it. Because of its symptoms I knew the bird had been poisoned and would die. I told the woman that the bird would be fine. After the woman left I put the bird out of its misery saying "go in peace little bird". This afternoon I had the privilege of sitting and praying with a woman who was about to die and what I kept thinking and said to her was "go in peace little bird". I then introduced her to the loving and welcoming spirits in the room that I could feel but not see. She died a short time later. The whole process was quite an honor.