Spirit owl

An owl flew onto our deck the other night, giving us both a momentary fright. The Northern Saw-Whet Owl was rather small, but it had clearly suffered a bad fall. My wife picked up the owl and kept it warm to ensure there was no enduring harm. Its densely feathered body and yellow eyes were a fluffy little bundle of great prize. She laid it in an upturned cowboy hat where it soon morphed into an acrobat, swiveling around its upright head as if returning swiftly from the dead. It plumped up its body, shook its tail, then leapt onto the balcony rail, and looked me directly in the eye ... suggesting it had bigger fish to fry. Some say the owl is the wisest bird; others feel it’s an animal to be feared. Certainly, it’s known as a fortune forecaster alerting humans to death or disaster. I believe owls are agents of change in an unseen world just out of our range -- one that rarely intersects with ours, despite wielding superhuman powers. I hope to meet the owl again some morning when I can learn more about its warning that we blinkered humans see only a slice of all that takes place in the spirit life.