Chaos

“I’m beginning to think peace is something we make up to keep us from being satisfied with all this luscious chaos.” -- Story People



The Chimney Swifts are gone. They left about a week ago, to fly back to South America, where they will spend the winter. Early in the season, we had only one family of these elegant, little, flying insect eating birds in our old brick and mortar chimney. But, according to the bird websites, after the two broods of the season are raised, the birds share their chimney with other families, in some cases creating a large, temporary colony.

That is what happened in our chimney beginning in early August. Chimney Swifts are a protected species because their numbers are dwindling so, due to the loss of their habitat, which is large hollow trees and masonry chimneys. Apparently, our big, tall, uncapped chimney was an ideal location, as the number of Chimney Swifts living in it continued to grow through August and into September.

By mid-September, every evening, right around dusk, a spectacular aerial show took place in the skies above our house, with hundreds of Chimney Swifts dodging and circling and whirling and diving as they feasted on flying insects and circled our chimney creating a swirling vortex of small, fast-flying, loudly twittering black birds. It was like an elaborate, elegant ballet with our chimney at the center of the stage. (Knowing a single family of Chimney Swifts consumes 12,000 flying insects each day made the performance that much more enjoyable.)

For months, no – actually years - Mr. Clark and I have “been gonna’” get the chimney repaired and have a new cap made for it. Our house was built in 1903 and the chimneys – like so many other things – have fallen into a bit of disrepair. But, in typical Clark house fashion, the “been gonna’s” persisted until something wonderful happened that will justify and prevent further repair work being done – at least for now.
This happens a lot at our house.

For years there has been a colony of bees living in one of our four front columns. In times past, (before the bee fungus started radically decreasing hive numbers throughout the country) there was a veritable swarm of bees flying in and out of the big hole their bee ancesters carved in that column top a long time ago.
Folks walking by always point at the bees and a surprising number ask why we haven’t had them exterminated by now. Why would we? They’ve never hurt us, and bees are a good thing. They’re responsible for a huge amount of the necessary pollination that occurs, even in commercial crops…

Every spring there’s a family or two of some kind of bird that nests in other holes, carved by their bird ancesters, high up on the other front columns of our house. Again, the question comes up – “Why don’t you plug those holes, so the birds can’t get in?” Again, my response is – “Why would I?” The birds aren’t doing any harm and it’s fun to watch them raise their young each year.

One of the carpenters we had working for us (back when there was money, time and interest in home repairs) was so amused by my bird habitat conservation policies that he built little metal roofs over each bird hole.

“Now your precious birds won’t even have to get wet when it rains,” he laughed, at me – not with me - I’m sure.
Right now there are four young squirrels living in the top of one of our front columns. The columns are Corinthian, so there is plenty of room for a squirrel nest, up there amongst all of that embellishment. I see these little guys peaking down at me from what looks to be a pretty perilous perch, as I come and go each day. I’m not sure how they got there or how they’ll escape, as I don’t hear them in the attic and there are no trees near enough for them to jump to. But, they seem to be well-fed, so whatever they’re doing is working for now…

Passersby stop and point them out, laughing at their antics, as the four little squirrel siblings peak their cute little faces over the column top. And, yes, the obvious question is, “Why don’t you do something about those squirrels? They’re going to destroy your column top, you know…”

I have added “find source of replacement Corinthian column tops” to the “been gonna’” list. In the meantime, I continue to look up at them and smile, even as I survey the bees to see how the population seems to be doing today. (Their numbers are dwindling…damn bee fungus!)

I’m comfortable with a bit of a mess around; a touch of chaos suits me just fine. In fact, a lengthy “been gonna’” list and too many piles of things needing organizing is way more comforting to me than an alphabetized spice shelf or a neatly edged lawn.

Life is short and organizing things takes time. Order (at least in my mind) is over-rated and often an illusion. Things happen - good and bad – suddenly and unexpectedly, no matter what state our chimneys, spice shelf or Corinthian column tops are in.

And, should something bad happen to me or mine, I will be glad to have seen the Chimney Swift ballet and cohabitated with the swarming bees. I will remember how much fun it was to watch the birds raise their families, and I will recall how the sight of those four silly squirrels peaking down at me always made me smile.