Around the Bluhmin’ Town

By

Judy Bluhm

Keep going. Don’t think. Just do it. Believe. A motivational speech for our business or personal lives? Or perhaps the recent flight path of one incredible bird. Oh, Mighty One, bar-tailed godwit, how we admire you. Flying non-stop from Alaska to Tasmania, you set the distance record at 8,435 miles in eleven days. This bird was tagged as a hatchling with a GPS chip and a tiny solar panel by researchers in Alaska. Oh Bird, with wings of steel, how did you fly so far when you were only four months old?

This was not an easy journey. The bar-tailed godwit cannot land in the ocean and take off again. If the bird went into the sea due to exhaustion, his trip would have ended. Once he set off from Alaska, the only choice was to keep going. And researchers are still not sure why he traveled this distance. This took constant flapping of wings, no food, no sleep, just bold determination. Was he lost? It appears he got separated from “his family” and landed on the wrong side of Australia. What was he thinking?

Perhaps the godwit is like our friend, Manuel, the tarantula, who for the past twenty-seven years, graces my friend, Diane’s house in New River every summer. He hangs around for about three months. No GPS, no map and probably little planning. Yet, he arrives unannounced and makes himself right at home. Maybe just a strange migration pattern?

How do we find our way home? How do we know where we are going? A dog named Bailey, was at a shelter in Texas for almost a year until she finally was adopted. The new owner was walking Bailey and the dog broke loose. Frantically searching the neighborhood, Bailey was nowhere to be found. Several days later, and ten miles away, Bailey used her snout to press the Ring doorbell outside of the shelter. It was the middle of the night, the staff was alerted and rushed to the shelter where Bailey was waiting by the door. They welcomed her back and placed her in her old, familiar run.

No one is sure how Bailey crossed interstates or managed with no food or water for three days, but she was determined to find the one place that she knew she’d safe. Hope and endurance brought her home.

Nature teaches. Sometimes we learn. I noticed a little spider build a beautiful and intricate web in between two bushes in my backyard. I called her Stella and watched her as she tended to her web and busied herself daily. I saw a tiny sparrow carefully designing a nest of twigs in a big Mesquite tree in my yard. Then a storm came, and Stella’s web was ripped to shreds and the sparrow’s nest was blown to bits.

Despite catastrophe, these tiny creatures rebuild. They simply try again, evidently knowing that giving up is never an option. From beating wings to small steps, nature’s resilience is one of the many gifts to admire in our world. And that mighty godwit is Lord of the Wings.

Judy Bluhm and a local realtor. Have a story or a comment? Contact Judy at [email protected] or www.aroundthebluhmintown.com.