Saved by a Scott's Oriole by Amy Sugeno

Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren, Wildreturn, [CC BY 2.0]

My sanity hangs from a single, brilliant, dew-soaked spider thread.
 
I did not ask for this. You did not ask for this. These hurricanes of fury and passion and wreckage and fear which have no end. Ahead of the eye, walls of gray rain march forward, fierce and unrestrained. Behind, tornadoes and bolts of fire descend from the angry sky, shocking the land and its overflowing waters.
 
In between the storms, the sun shines, and we rebuild.
 
Standing behind the big chair in our living room, I watch, through little pools of tears, as the raging hand of mania strangles you. And I curse the sadness I know will follow and try to drown you. The shadowy, gnawing beast has come out of hiding and has swallowed you whole.
 
I have lost you again.
 
As despair pulls me under, a bird catches me and lifts me back up. Through the window next to me, he lands at the feeder. A sun-yellow body draped in a night-black hood. His beauty is so stunning, so perfect, he is all I can see. My eyes fill again with little pools. How can there be so much beauty in the middle of so much pain?
 
Yet here he is. Right now, in this moment, with this pain.
 
Having had his fill of sweet nectar, he disappears over the tops of the trees, carrying the bright ​sun and dark night with him as he steals away.
 
And leaves a little piece of sanity behind.

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Amy Sugeno is a mental health therapist, mindfulness teacher, and former wildlife biologist. A life-long outdoor-lover, she has tracked rattlesnakes in dusty deserts and taught people to meditate in fields and forests. Amy lives outside of Austin in the rocky and rugged Texas Hill Country. She is currently working on a collection of creative nonfiction essays about nature, mindfulness, and adoption. Visit her online at www.amylsugeno.com

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