Give and Take

When I came into the kitchen yesterday to start the morning coffee, a fat roach was being there already. He was lying on its back, his little legs moving every now and then. The antennae were swaying in a more purposeful manner, catching signals of some sort. Fascinating. Now a quick slap with our professional heavy duty fly swatter, and that was it. Moving on.

Later, my kids found a dead bird in the front yard. It was a simple and honest looking bird, I don't know what kind, a pipit maybe or a thrush. Its brown eyes were wide open. It was sad to see this sweet little bird on the ground, the ants were already having a feast.

It reminded me of the dead squirrel that I picked up as a first-grader on my way to school. It was in Germany, we lived in a big industrial city. I always walked to school, together with my sister. We were passing a park on our way, and there was this small red squirrel laying on the lawn, so stiff already but incredibly fluffy looking, I couldn't resist to pick it up and bring the dead squirrel into the classroom. My teacher did not quite share my excitement yet she placed the corpse on some tissue and had the kids pass it around. My mom wouldn't allow me to keep the dead squirrel, and it ended up in one of the large metal garbage cans behind the apartment building.

Mona and Jacob were in the middle of preparing a burial for the bird when I left to paint an elephant graveyard for the Community Theater's Lion King production. I painted a big skull full of elephant memories onto the set piece where someone had already installed an impressive rib cage made from wired pool noodles.

It was past midnight when I came back home. The kids were curled up in their blankets as in cocoons, their faces hidden under all their hair. In the spirit of give and take, I think we all had a good day in this life.