A friend of mine from town brings her dog to the country to run and play in our field. Said dog has already had several encounters with country critters. (Amusing to us, exciting to him.) On the other side of the fence, he’s seen the most massive “dog” ever (a deer) and the slowest “thing” ever (a tortoise). He’s also raced after a rabbit, squirrel, and flock of birds. But nothing could’ve prepared him or his owner for their surprise during last week’s drive home. Not long into their journey, in the distance, they saw what they thought to be a vulture by the side of the road. Slowing down, the vulture suddenly turned into a magnificent peacock who screeched and put on a full feather plume display. Prompting a phone call to me saying, “There’s a peacock in the road near your house!” Followed by my, “Yes, it’s the neighborhood peacock. No one knows if he belongs to someone. He’s handsome, isn’t he!” :-)
Peacocks can fly but display their tail feathers as part of a courtship ritual (or, apparently, in mutual surprise on seeing a Labradoodle.) “Peacock” refers to the male, with peahen and peachicks completing this peafowl portion of the pheasant family (say that ten times before your next reading…) A group of peahens is a harem, and a collection of all is called a “bevy.” The luminescence comes from the reflection of light on “crystal-like” structures in the train feathers. A delicacy in Medieval times (!) their feathers can be collected after they molt.
My takeaway for our art and writing practice is to go beyond “expect the unexpected” to “expect something magnificent!” Why not? You can welcome magnificence into your art and life. Just before writing this, I heard Lizzo interviewed - she said, “Look your insecurities in the face.” There’s no reason in the world that you can’t channel your magnificent creative energy into unique creations. The opportunity to do that will almost always arrive unexpectedly. So, as you travel on your creative journey, anticipate magnificence!
Photo credit: Photo by Ricardo Frantz on Unsplash
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