Look to the heron

What do you think of this picture? (on the left)
Look closely at the passenger side window of our van. If you can make it out, it looks like a big white body, with two legs, feet and a small tail. Above the body, but not connected is a long graceful neck topped by a small blob of a head and even a beak.
To my way of thinking, it can't be anything but a heron.
Or maybe it's a miracle. The miracle heron.
The image appeared one morning a few days ago and only recently washed off in the rain. The medium is, appropriately enough, bird crap.
It was so clearly a heron that we just decided to leave it on there until it washed off. No point upsetting the spirit world.
Yes, I've considered that it may have just been someone messing with us. It could have been someone out there drawing on the window, late at night. But then, they would have to have been willing to finger paint in bird poo. And excuse me, but we just don't know anyone that twisted.
On one level, it was nice and amusing to point out to people. A pleasant diversion. But, as an aspiring optimist, I feel compelled to seek out something hopeful in this sign.
So on to the Internet and animal symbology.
And wow. The heron is a good thing. According to a site called Wildspeak/Vilturj, there are quite a lot of lessons the patient, silent, balancing heron can teach us. And I quote:

"Heron teaches us the value of watching and waiting in order to get what you need. In other words, heron teaches us the value of patience. It is not a passive patience, but an active one. We wait in our lives to grab opportunity when it arises, it is not a passive patience waiting for life to happen to us."

Yeah, that seems apt enough. So maybe a heron is my totem and it will be my gentle guide into the middle world, teaching me to balance my emotions and perform martial arts and...oh, wait. Am I straying into the occult again? Dang. But if people can line up to see images of the Virgin Mary on a grill, a grilled cheese, a lump of chocolate, a hospital window, a turtle (click here for some pics) and if a guy in Australia can claim that a Mary and Jesus in his lava lamp turned his life around, then why not my little heron teaching me the lessons of patience and quiet reflection?

Free food update

The free food outlook was grim this past weekend. I was out in the car for several hours Saturday morning, interviewing people for the garden book when I needed to make a stop at the Toon Shop in Prairie Village for some piano books for students.
As luck would have it, there was an art show with lots of booths. Should be some free food, right?
So I walked around with all the people enjoying their day off and deciding what to spend all their extra money on.
Art. Art. Art. No food. I stopped in the Better Cheddar--usually generous with the pretzels and dip. What's happened to that store? There were only some miserly crackers.
Back out on the street, a nice lady gave me a tiny free bottled water with a store coupon. Thanks, I was getting thirsty.
In desperation, I made one last lurch through the Hen House Market. Things looked hopeful when right away I was able to score a big piece of some kind of sample muffin. But alas, the only other sample table had only an empty wrapper for hot dogs.
People, people, people. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.
One day, when my heron guides me to power and riches, we'll remember. Oh, we'll remember.