SYNCHRONICITY, BIRDS AND HEALING

Every year Seth Apter organizes a "Treasure Hunt" for favourite blog posts. You can find links to other bloggers taking part in the treasure hunt, here. I have chosen Synchronicity, Birds and Healing for my Buried Treasure post. The bird sculptures in this post are all created by Geoffrey Gorman.

When my husband was gravely ill he spent many months in bed recovering from several surgeries and radical chemotherapy. To distract ourselves from the situation I decided to hang bird feeding platforms outside our bedroom window to see how many bird species we could attract to the garden. Every day I prepared a feast that soon became the talk of the town and within days every bird and his wife descended on our garden.

Once we had attracted the birds to the garden I purchased a nesting log made from palm stem. It wasn't completely hollowed out because apparently it is best to keep everything as natural as possible. Armed with wire and pliers I climbed into the tree closest to the bedroom window and fixed the log so that Martin would be able to see it directly from the bed.


Coming back through the kitchen door I called out that it may be a few weeks before the birds become used to the log. Almost immediately, Martin answered, "Come and have a look! ".

I have goosebumps thinking about it even now for there perched on the log were two Black Collared Barbets and while we watched with mouths agape they started pecking the soft pith out from the centre of the log.

It took several weeks for them to hollow it out to their liking but eventually the Barbets were satisfied and they began to build a nest inside the log. They were in that tree, building, nesting, feeding and rearing young for the rest of Martin's treatment.

Our visitors all congregated in the bedroom to watch, mesmerized as the little Barbet family went about their business. We are convinced that they played a very important part in my husband's healing. What are the odds that a family of shy birds will take up residence in a tree only minutes after putting up the nesting log? I have given palm logs as gifts over the years and most people report that no bird will go near it for the first month, if ever. We experienced many synchronicities during the two years that my husband was ill and this is definitely one we will never forget.

See more of Geoffrey Gorman's work here and his blog here.