… to grace the village with their serene presence.
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Normally these giant birds place their nests around the edge of the village, high above the bustle of its inhabitants.
However, this individual has chosen one of the central squares. Only ten feet off the ground and surrounded by the houses of the good people of Facinas – she looks on unperturbed with all this human activity.
Indeed, as she surveys the Facinences, one cannot help but sense a regal presence, a queen overlooking her loyal subjects.
She certainly has all the grace and poise of the ancient queens of legend and to judge from the shrewd eye, a large measure of wisdom too!
The stork, in many traditions, is the bringer of new life, prosperity, and good news. While many native cultures see in her the souls of the ancestors.
For me, there is a simple joy in seeing such a magnificent bird raising her young in complete trust just feet from so many humans. This sensible arrangement should of course be the norm and not something to be thought of as unusual.
So I continue on my way to the market, secure under the watchful and beneficent gaze of Facinas’s regal totem.
Photo: White stork in Facinas. Courtesy of the author.
