Fly Me To The Moon
The Center for Birds of Prey sprawls on 152 marsh-front acres just north of Charleston, SC. Its mission is to rehabilitate injured birds and provide shelter for birds born in captivity, ones that can no longer survive in the wild. Walking around the site, evidence of the Center’s good work is everywhere in the hawks, bald eagles, owls and peregrine falcons that squawk, flap and soar around their airy homes.
The birds live in wooden open-air buildings scattered throughout the forest. Alice worked on the design of those smart little structures, thinking through the needed slats in the roof, choosing the proper caging, and deciding how best to integrate areas for people into the habitat of the birds. The buildings float along a meandering path that opens onto a panoramic Lowcountry view of swaying grass and salty creeks. Those forest green rooms merge with the landscape like they’ve been there forever. Smart. Sensitive. Perfect.
MTM and I stopped to survey the product of Alice’s design vision, grabbing shade in the smothering heat wherever we could. I wasn’t really interested in the birds. Not at first. But, we happened to arrive in time for a flight demonstration. Because we were already drenched in our own juices, we decided to watch for a bit.
The Mississippi Kite was my favorite raptor. In the wild, it noshes on dragonflies and other bugs, prey it catches with its feet and transfers to its beak, “on the wing” or in flight. Its flight pattern resembles that of a fluttering kite, its narrow wings spanning long across its body, allowing it to hover, dive and soar without flapping its wings.
I watched the Kite dip and climb through the air, marveling at how it always came back to its handler. Regardless of the majestic heights it attained, it was grounded in its notion of coming home again.
When Alice flys away, she won’t be coming back. That doesn’t take away from watching her soar. There was a point when she wavered, when I thought she might not fly. It was one of the hardest conversations of my life to push her from her perch, to fight my selfish longing for her to stay, to insist that she spread her wings and take a leap.
Few will relish watching Alice take wing more than me. Godspeed, my Dear, as you live the quote you once gave me: It is never too late to be what you might have been. – George Eliot
This post is part of a series that celebrates my friendship with Alice Guess as she moves to Baton Rouge, LA. If this is your first visit, please click here and read forward. Thank you for reading and sharing your stories here.
I’ve been out there a couple of times. It’s always a fun place to visit, and the flight demos are fun to see. Being able to get up close and personal to some of the birds makes it worth the trip out there.
It was really interesting to watch them and hear how they trained them. Plus, I didn’t realize crows were as intelligent as they are. A good afternoon.
Great to see Alice soar although she will be sorely missed at the blogerama fests. The Center is a very cool place and the Lovely Miss TK has a real hawk fetish, she sees every one there is to see as we travel the roads in the Lowcountry. We’ll be driving along and she’ll shreek (like a screech owl)…THERE’S ONE!! Scares me half to death every time.
One of our Rotary Club members volunteers there three times a week and has brought in various birds and has even had a couple fly across the room, pretty darn cool.
We need to get them out to one of our Rotary meetings. It would make for an interesting talk.
Pete McKellar III is the guy and I’m sure he would love to do it. Let me know and I’ll put you guys in touch. Then I’ll be a raptor whisperer….
Oooooh, Miss TK is a kindred spirit! I loved spotting the hawks sitting on fence posts and wires, whenever we were out for a drive, and pointing them out to my sis and my Mom. Mom used to wonder aloud how I could “possibly watch” where I was driving and still spot so many hawks (or the occasional winging heron, egret, pelican, etc.) — just tuned to them, I guess.
Reading this entire series has been akin to meeting your friend, Alice, so this friend of her friend wants to wish her well in her new venture. I, too, love the George Eliot quote, and this morning I found something I believe fully describes what Alice means to you (and possibly what you mean to her):
“She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It’s good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.” ~ Toni Morrison
Your Toni Morrison quote made me cry, Karen. Thank you.
Me, too. You’re welcome.
I need to get out there. Have seen the folks many times at the Southeastern Wildlife Expo, but have never been out to their center.
And what do you mean she isn’t coming back? Louisiana isn’t a prison! (Though there some might tough ones there.) She can come back and visit. And better yet, you now have another reason to travel down to my birthplace, soak up the atmosphere, eat some great food, and visit.
Here leaving doesn’t make your world smaller, it makes it larger! She will be growing and expanding – learning knew things and meeting new people – and that expansion will flow back to you. She may not be as physically close as she has been, but the other parts of your relationship will grow to fill up that distance. Kind of like friendship kudzu!
You know what I mean, Carnell.
Yes dear, I do. But I was trying to be upbeat and positive. Not something I do very well, sorry.
Always happy for upbeat and positive. In the midst of it all, I hope that’s what this week has been.
That’s such an awesome project. There’s a wild bird area at Calllaway with protected and injured animals who can’t be returned to the wild. My kids make me sit through their show every time. I don’t doubt that your friend Alice will soar, and that you and MTM will still be able to support her through everything. My best friend and I live ten hours away right now. And she will be my best friend until I die. We were preschool friends, and our bond has survived her heroin addiction, my bipolar, and both of us growing up and getting married and having babies. It will be harder for you apart, but you’ll have just that much more of an excuse to go even deeper into the South.
I need more excuses to get down that way in the coming months.
Cayleigh and I started planning my October visit last night.
The sign of true friendship is that you pushed her off her perch, even though it was painful for you. I’m sure she will hold you in her heart forever for that little shove.
Some of the best things we can do hurt the most. I have to remind myself of that every day, regarding other parts of living life.
What a tremendous post, Andra: the freedom of a hawk is one of the most stunning demonstrations of free spirit this world has to offer, and what a beautiful metaphor for Alice and her journey. Hard to be the one urging her upwards. that George Eliot quote was so inspiring.
I know she will do well, Kate. She’s wanted this since I’ve known her. I just wish the school of architecture in Charleston had seen her value.
That looks like a totally awesome place. And, clearly, both you and Alice are good friends–very good friends. You are both blessed. Good luck to Alice on her journey. Great series!
Hugs,
Kathy
Thanks, Kathy. I hope you are continuing to heal from your dastardly tumble.
You are such a good friend, and sending her on with your support and blessing is a wonderful gift. It is going to be so interesting to see how your friendship will take on new dimension! I know it will. Debra
I hope it does, Debra. I can’t stand talking on the phone, but I hope we can skype or something.
Ah man, tears so early this morning – there’s no way you made it through writing this without shedding a tear, or two, or a hundred, I felt them and my chest reverberated with unshed tears, so I let a few of mine escape.
Just remember that as she soars there’s a part of you that soars with her, yeah, I know, you already knew that…bittersweet.
What’s always hardest about these things is watching a person move on to the next phase of life while I’m still stuck. It doesn’t diminish my happiness for Alice (or for other friends who’ve had similar smiles from the Universe) in the slightest, but I do have to fight my own interior battles with wondering when life is going to let me move on, too.
To push a friend from the nest is a great and good thing.
She’s pushed me, too. The times I’ve wanted to quit writing have been numerous……….
Then I think we all owe her a debt of gratitude.
And thank you, so very much, for the kind things you said yesterday. Every little push helps in those moments.
You’re welcome. I totally understand.
I’ll write this on your blog, too, but your comments seem to be all going to my spam folder. I find them and approve them, but I am sorry for the delay. I will try to figure out why this keeps happening.