This morning, a lovely photo of a bird came with this question in a Bird Group I'm on (on Facebook, where else):
This bird landed on a friend's lap while sitting on their patio. It stayed for a few seconds and then flew off into the woods. Could someone ID this bird for me?
I loved one the replies, this one in particular. It really got me thinking.
Some believe a "visit" from a deceased love one perhaps....documented stories of birds and butterflies doing this, randomly landing on people, then taking off just fine. ... odd to land on a live moving object, regardless.
How many birds and butterflies in my life might have been visits from lost loved ones?
Not even one,
I was thinking. A hummingbird once touched me with its beak, but I was wearing a floral dress; a colorful cotton-print flower tricked this little winged visitor. The dress, its colors, its floral print, looked a lot like this:
Butterflies have landed on me, but I never mistook one for my sister or grandma or any human soul.
How lovely to believe things like this:
When loved ones pass, their main concern for us is to let us know that even in death, they are still alive and their soul is still with you. They want you to feel comforted at this time. They work their hardest at getting a sign to you at the moments you most need them.
"Spirit animals let you know loved ones are still nearby" by Bonnie Page
And this:
source: Are Butterflies Signs From The Angels?
Surrounded by lost loved ones, or not,
I stepped outside to enjoy the fall day and to keep an eye out for visiting birds and butterflies.
A giant spider galloped in, but I caught it and set it back outside.
Not much stirring out there but the wind, today. I wondered how imminent the demise of my sister Lori, age 63, may be. She is not doing well. I'd rather hear her voice on the phone than have her land on my shoulder as a monarch, or gallop through the front door as a spider.
My thoughts turned to housekeeping and getting lunch ready and just when I opened the door to go back into the house, something landed on my head.
A tree frog!
Coincidence, right?
Never mind the timing. IT HAD TO BE A SIGN, right?
Can't say I've ever had a frog fall onto my head before!
We've seen this frog on and off all summer. It leaves its droppings on our front porch, and it sometimes stretches a little webbed hand out from behind the wooden shutter. I've tried to snap photos, but he blends into the bricks or cement and is hard to spy, so I highlighted him in yellow in this rare snapshot I took in June (with our daughter humming "Someday my prince will come"):
Here's the thing. Only two days before, on the phone with Lori, we recalled how our Grandpa, on his deathbed in a hospital, kept seeing frogs on the ceiling.
Grandpa? Was that you?
Still highly unlikely, I would say, but how fun to imagine he dropped in to say hello.
I wanted to photograph this little grey visitor, but it took both hands to capture him and he squirted them thoroughly, so, no, I just let him out asap, and he hopped out of sight. Definitely gray, not green, but I wondered if that's because frogs can do that chameleon thing. Here's a gray tree frog someone else photographed:
Um, yeah, a butterfly might be lovelier, but a wet, gray frog plopping onto my head was a welcome surprise. Just so long as this amphibian isn't telling me my sister Lori has suddenly departed and managed to say goodbye via Tree Frog on her way to heaven.
Come to think of it, it's exactly the kind of sign Lori would give me - not butterflies, not cardinals and hummers. Lori would dump a frog on my head. Or a spider.
Only yesterday Lori was back in E.R., feeling miserable. Dialysis is horrific, and the "oil change" she jokes about is not something she would want me to describe in a public venue, so I will only say that she went home that same day, feeling "better," but her "better" is still pretty bad. Today, her daughter made the five-hour drive to see her. That should help keep Lori going for another three months or three thousand miles. Nothing brightens her day like seeing her only child.
When the dreaded day does come, maybe Lori will occupy a lion should she want to say hello. A lion would be nice. But I'll take a frog or whatever else you can access.
Meanwhile: STAY ABOVE GROUND, sis!
Dang, maybe I should do a follow-up post, or edit this one.
MINUTES AFTER I POSTED THIS ONE, a crash at the screen door got me to lookL Lying on its back, little feet waving, an injured pine warbler (or magnolia warbler) gasped for air. I let it be. Minutes passed. It rolled to its feet and sat around a bit longer, despite Bobi the Bad keeping watch. The bird looked right at me, I swear, as if to let me know it knew I was watching over ..... finally, off it flew. Bobi whined and complained, of course.
Sorry to hear about your sister. One of my sister died almost 10 years ago, but I don't think she ever visited me like that. I've only had mosquitoes landing on me and she'd be smart enough not to do that!
A mosquito - oh no, don't give Lori any ideas!
Lori is Sister #2 of 5 daughters. It's Sister #1 who was murdered in 1975 at age 18.
At only age 63, Lori is much too young to be suffering the way she is with dialysis.
Thank you for reading and commenting, and my condolences on the loss of your own sister!!!!
I believe that, if you think of a lost loved one, they have just visited you.
I'm sure Julie would come as a hummingbird or butterfly too though. Or a purple dragonfly! They are all her.
I'm so sorry Lori isn't doing well. It's been a terribly up and down year for her, and you all.
Julie would be a purple butterfly or bird, or a unicorn, or a Pegasus - if she ever came to visit at all! I picture her speeding through the universe, not lingering here with all the sad, sorry people who lament her loss. Let her be light: a beam of light, a dance of electrons, a bright spirit traveling at the speed of light.
Lori would totally channel a frog and land on my head - but she is still alive, so I'll have to look to Grandpa for this little stunt. Or just marvel at the unlikelihood of a tree frog ever FALLING from above a door - those little guys can stick to a brick wall like nobody's business.
Lori has a feeding tube down her throat and cannot talk. (Yup, back in hospital.) Today's revelation: when the bone marrow transplant left her with MY blood type replacing hers, she would now be subject to the Type O diet, which says NO CORN, no wheat, no dairy, no beans, pork, or cabbage. No way, Lori will say. She's not giving up her #1 Bribe for Living. Food.
Thanks for reading and commenting - you're a dear!
You gave her a bone marrow transplant? I didn't know that. How long ago was that? Just curious... I didn't know something like that could be from someone with a different blood type.
My sister died today.
When do the tears run dry, when do we manage to sleep and how did I ever imagine I was going to be ok when this day came. Lori. Lori. How do we move on? I can't remember. All such instincts or learning, I have forgotten.
Lori's last few months have been very difficult for your whole family. May you all now have a breather, and a chance to heal, and to love each other more closely. And sleep, deep deep sleep with beautiful dreams.
You are OK. You've got this. I love you. I'm here if you want to talk, too.
Thank you! I love you!!!
And this: a breather, and a chance to heal, and to love each other more closely. And sleep, deep deep sleep with beautiful dreams.
In 1994, Lori shouted at a nurse doing a transfusion, "You're giving me the wrong blood type! I'm not O-positive"
"You are now," the nurse said. Consequence of my bone marrow.
And yet we were a 99% match for bone marrow. Go figure!
Science is waaaaay beyond my grasp.
This is such a beautiful, beautiful post. Aren't we all manifestations of the same thing embodied differently? When I'm around nature, I feel so much love. Maybe that's the soul of life and that's what all life shall become? Love and Light.
Your reply is so beautiful - you've articulated what I was trying to say and dared to believe what I can only hope: All life is one, and all shall become Love and Light!
My sister is in the hospital AGAIN, and I need to go see her asap. My daughter brought her three kids to see her last night and snapped this:
Lori weighs something like 80 pounds now, and how she stays alive, I cannot fathom.
#heartbreak
#mysister!!!!
Thank you @yangyanje and please forgive me for not seeing this comment two years ago...
TWO YEARS
Good grief.... I may have to unblock notifications.
Thanks again!
LOVE and LIGHT!
LOL
Oops again
Turns out, I did reply to your comment.... didn't see my own reply ...
eh
No explanations.