Our humming bird

 

This hummingbird made a little nest in a small tree just outside our gate and became part of our lives. We checked on her after storms, worried about cats and commented on if she was there or not when we came and went. We learned that she would sit on the eggs for about two weeks and then take care of the babies for about two weeks. We made plans for Carol to send me videos if I was in the US when the babies were born. She isn't going to need to do that though, because we found the little nest torn up and abandoned yesterday morning. I was sad when we saw it. Sad for us, because we were looking forward to seeing the babies, but mostly sad for her because I attributed a mother's grief to the little bird. Then reason kicked in and I realized that the newly-freed hummingbird likely flew off without so much as a thought in her little bird brain and a scrappy cat likely got a tasty breakfast treat.

Unintended consequences

A teacher we adore invited us to his graduation. We no-showed because we are bad at Portuguese and confused our days of the week. Thinking we had nothing to do that night, we went to a "blue moon" event at the lagoa. It was a yoga thing with time set aside for headstands. I used to stand on my head as a kid and figured I still could, so I gave it a try. After my legs went up, I thought of all the pain I've had in my poor wrecked neck for the past 10 months. I can't believe that I put all my weight directly on the weakest part of my body, but I did. On our drive home I described the sensation in my neck as a pulsing hollowness; it was deep and intense but not exactly painful. Carol gave me ibuprofen. We went to bed hoping for the best. When I woke up, the pain was gone. It's been five days and I'm better. Not as good as new but damn sure better than before the headstand. Life, right? We got our days confused and missed our friend's graduation but instead attended a random event where I did an ill-advised headstand and now I can hold my head up right. It's good to make plans and act intentionally, but it is also good to let fate have its way and enjoy some happenstance now and then.

Gendered pronouns

 I had a boss who indiscriminately confused her gender pronouns. Her own husband was often "she" in a story; I heard many females, including myself, referred to as "he" and we had a non-binary colleague who was rarely "they." I was always a little puzzled by this quirk. True, English was her second language but she was super smart and had technically perfect written English. I wondered why she didn't have this dialed. Then it happened to me. I have no control over the pronouns that come out of my mouth. Carol estimates that I call her "ele" about 60% of the time even though she corrects me with "ela" every time without fail. Because all the nouns in Portuguese use genders, my communication is a mess with people places and things misgendered at random. I think about my old boss and I'm sorry if I judged her. The brain can be very specific when it comes to language and I think there is something up there in charge of picking proper pronouns that just spins in circles in some people.