A visiting owl

Someone I love dearly, collects owls. I know you read my blog, so today this one is for you. I hope your health improves and despite the pain you are in, try to stay cheerful. Good health is precious and I wish you a speedy recovery.

Being a writer at heart, I have a furtive imagination. When I was a young child, as soon as I could read and write, I began writing stories and poetry, and making up stories on the spur of the moment to entertain my niece and nephew. One day returning from school, I couldn't have been more than 11 or 12 years old, I saw a man driving along our street with two owls, one perched on each shoulder. I stared at this peculiar sight, hardly  believing my eyes, and ran inside to tell my mother what I had just seen. I was met with a disbelieving look and knew she didn't want to hear anything more about owls in cars. A child can feel quite hurt when dismissed and not believed, but vengeance was mine, for a few days later, someone paid us a visit. My mother opened the front door to find a man on the doorstep, asking if he could go into our back garden, as one of his pet barn owls had flown in and was sitting on a tree. Astonished, she turned her gaze upon me, and quickly led the man to our back garden, where sure enough, sitting quite contentedly in a tree was a small owl. The man managed to coax the owl down with a tit bit of food, and the owl then sat perched comfortably on his shoulder. He thanked us, and as he was about to leave, my mother could contain her curiosity no longer, and asked him if he ever drove his car with the owls sitting on his shoulders. My mother's mouth dropped open as he said "Yes of course, all the time. They love coming for a ride in the car with me." From that day forth, my mother took more notice when I'd relay a strange event or story to her. I am one of those people to whom the most peculiar things always seem to happen. I don't know if this is a blessing or a curse, but it makes for some great stories.

Last November TED and The Huffington Post debuted TEDWeekends, and I was given the great opportunity of writing an article for this week's edition of TEDWeekends on The Huffington Post, reaching a wide audience worldwide. This has helped enable me get my message out there of hope during great adversity. Take a look, and feel free to leave a comment.