There are herons nesting in the live oak by my friend’s house here in Beaumont. I like to see them sitting there. I like to see them fly too, spreading their vast grey wings in the morning light. I also like the creatures at dusk, the many songbirds, but above all the bats. It’s something to counter the boredom and listlessness of this small town. Perhaps I might not have grown so attuned to nature had I not been so bored and miserable here. So this is something nice I get to take with me, something to remember this place by. Though nature is beautiful and wild and wonderful in so many places. Even in Houston, especially in the park and around the bayou. It’s a real revelation there, in the middle of the city, where one is not forced to observe it out of boredom but simply because it’s alive and magical. After all, it was there that I saw the armadillos. And last week I also saw a heron.
