{"id":1897,"date":"2011-02-09T00:25:57","date_gmt":"2011-02-09T04:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/?p=1897"},"modified":"2011-02-09T00:27:48","modified_gmt":"2011-02-09T04:27:48","slug":"tuesday-night-the-owl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/2011\/02\/09\/tuesday-night-the-owl\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday night &#8211; the owl"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I saw an owl this afternoon.. it was perched on a tree outside of our house.. I started at it for a while before i recognized what I was looking at..\u00a0\u00a0 She&#8230; (I&#8217;m sure it was a she, somehow).. was more than two feet tall and was perched motionless staring out over the river. Then she slowly swiveled her head to look at me.. stared at me for a moment then spread her wings and glided off.\u00a0\u00a0 I was stunned for a moment.. i&#8217;ve never seen such a majestic bird so close up&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been thinking about the look she gave me all evening.. it was peaceful and knowing.. not ominous.. but I can&#8217;t help remembering that seeing an owl.. especially during the day.. is considered a bad omen in many cultures.. In some cultures it warns of death,, while in others it comes as a messenger.. a harbinger of change.. In others it&#8217;s a a totem animal&#8230; a sign of wisdom.. a bringer of magic.<\/p>\n<p>What do I.. on the eve of my birthday .. comfortably middle aged.. and happy.. (if in a lopsided kind of way )\u00a0 choose to make of such a sighting ?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do I choose to take it as a warning of some kind\u00a0 and brace for something ? Do I take it as a sign of coming of age and wisdom.. or do I take it merely as a very hungry bird out looking for an unlucky snack ?<\/p>\n<p>You know.. the wonderful think about being where I am now in life is .. I don&#8217;t have to choose.. in fact I don&#8217;t get to choose.. .. I&#8217;m at that point of surrender where I know i don&#8217;t get to choose my fate any more than anyone does.. and .. that&#8217;s kind of nice..<\/p>\n<p>On the eve of my birthday I reach out to all the other me&#8217;s in the 52 years past.. and who-know&#8217;s-how-many future and say.. happy birthday me.. .. I hope you&#8217;re enjoying your day&#8230; ..<\/p>\n<p>-nite aall, nite sam<\/p>\n<p>-me<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/feb0811-006.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1898\" title=\"feb0811 006\" src=\"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/feb0811-006.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"663\" srcset=\"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/feb0811-006.jpg 600w, http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/feb0811-006.jpg 271w, http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/feb0811-006.jpg 180w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I saw an owl this afternoon.. it was perched on a tree outside of our house.. I started at it for a while before i recognized what I was looking at..\u00a0\u00a0 She&#8230; (I&#8217;m sure it was a she, somehow).. was more than two feet tall and was perched motionless staring out over the river. Then &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/2011\/02\/09\/tuesday-night-the-owl\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Tuesday night &#8211; the owl<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[61],"class_list":["post-1897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-owl"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1897"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1900,"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1897\/revisions\/1900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}