RA
In the early summer of -06 RL Tone was given a little crow girl to care for; It was during one of three heavy rain storms that otherwise unusually sunny and warm summer, and the little crow had evidently fallen from a nest high up underneath a cliff - down onto a road with heavy traffic. Her foot was badly damaged, but otherwise she seemed ok. After searching for the nest for several stormy days, unsuccessfully, Tone accepted her 'Crow mama' status, started building an aviary at the edge of the forest surrounding her garden; And for the next few weeks the crow healed, and quite rapidly began to participate in Tone's daily gardening activities, picking weeds but mostly rose petals - and picking baby trees was a favorite - but the pond being the most exciting attraction; to bathe in and as a mirror to watch all the creatures of the skies. And every time she wanted to tell Tone something, she called out 'Ra! Ra!' and aimed at a shoulder, a hand, or preferably the head.
Thus:) - she received the name Ra.
And as it turned out to be the sunniest summer in living memory in the fjord of Hardanger (Norway), the name seemed even more fitting (Ra, the sun god).
Every morning Ra greeted Tone with flapping wings and excited cries, and every evening she would insist on sitting close to Tone's ear and tell her about everything that had happened on yet another adventurous day; Herons flew by at dawn, all the birds of the forest danced for her on the first sun beams breaking through, seagulls scouted throughout the day, cats came and went, and at dusk the forest pidgeon's wings would signal dark's arrival - and then the herons would return.
But the night is filled with danger, and so is early dawn - one morning a hawk was scouting nearby. Soon thereafter the local crow family started to visit the garden more and more frequently - making an obvious approach towards Ra; taking her on flights, keeping her away for hours at a time - yet always returning with her at dusk, guarding her flight back to her aviary home in the garden.
And always Tone would be waiting for her; Receiving the amazing communion of a wild being choosing to spend these moments together with her.
The time spent in the garden gradually started to change; instead of picking weeds and rose petals, Ra started picking at Tone's heals - as if to say: 'Come fly with me!' And when Tone explained that 'I have no wings..!' - Ra still insisted, and grabbed her hair: 'Come!' Fly!' And then she would fly all around her, teasing and 'attacking' her - before she finally gave up, and would take off to spend the day with the other crows.
And return when the herons did.
One morning Tone found a headless dead bird on her doorstep, later that same day she found a skull in the a field -
And then, that evening, Ra never did return....and not the next....nor the next....
Every day she searched, and every day Tone found new feathers - making a trail for her to walk with her grief and wonder:
Did she fly with the crows?
Did the hawk find her?
Did she live and thrive?
Or did Ra perish and die?
Tone will perhaps never know -
but she was granted a bird's heart
and the magic of a bird's breath
(Birds do breathe differently - if you didn't know....Breathe on a feather, and you will see
- when you breathe out, the feather rises..)
Far away, on the other side of the planet, there's a woman called Mary; a real medicine woman, a healer and a Raven. When it was time, Tone gathered the feathers Ra gave me as gifts, found the ones she wanted to carry closest to her heart, and thus 'Raspirit' was born.
Raspirit travelled in the form of these feathers half way across the planet - to Mary; who made a beautiful pouch to safeguard them and to safeguard this precious spirit - and back again.
And in the meantime Raspirit turned a heart into one of renewed longing - to fly high!
Thus:) - Raspirit Heron
Several moths later- on on of her daily walks, Tone suddenly found a little baby pine tree - all intact with roots and all - 'thrown' in front of her on the road....?