October 13, 2006
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Many Simple Gifts
As a first-year novice, all of us have an outside ministry. Some of us go to homeless shelters, soup kitchens, nursing homes and schools. I am at a nearby school, and it is a blast. I employ a wide-array of skills there, everything from tutoring, being a library assistant, helping eat lunch (my favorite), or being a six-foot child.
Today, however, I employed a skill I’d only ever used on one other occasion. Today I was a birdcatcher.
The school’s principal is moving on after over a decade of service. There was a HUGE goodbye celebration during which a multitude of adorable children showered her with praise and homemade gifts. The principal is a huge Packers fan, so everyone was wearing green and gold.
It turns out that the principal also used to raise parakeets, so some of the teachers got together and bought her a lovely green and gold parakeet. Guess who was asked to put the cage and all the toys together? Me. Guess who asked where the parakeet was? Me. It wasn’t in the cage; it was in a little box with holes in it, as it had just been recently purchased. So, how do you put a bird from a box and into a cage?
Fortunately, the door to the huge classroom was shut, because when I CAREFULLY opened the box, a feathered hand grenade went off and exploded into the air, flying from perch to perch. I chased it around for nearly half an hour, nearly succeeding in grabbing it. Eventually we cornered it in a large walk-in closet, and I had two other teachers block the doorway with a large towel.
It was just the bird and I. Mono y mono. One-on-one. There were only three ways out- me, him, or we go together.
He was flitting from ceiling light to ceiling light, and then from shelf to shelf. Eventually he landed on the edge of a shelf and I tossed a light-weight piece of fabric at him.
Silence.
Was he dead?
I gathered up the fabric, and there was no sign of him. So I took the bundle to the cage and slowly unraveled it to find… the parakeet, looking at me with a grand, “What the *tweet* just happened?”
So I caged the little demon, and another teacher even brought her cage with a parakeet “chik” in it. The Green Hornet dug the extra company, though he didn’t say much. I think he was pretty happy, though, that the lady bird didn’t see him getting caught. It must have been embarassing for a bird with an ego that big.
So, the lesson here is never underestimate the multitude of simple gifts we are all blessed with; you never know when you’ll suddenly have to perform a task you’ve never done before, and discover you’re a natural.
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Comments (9)
I *am* very pleased that you remembered. I’ll update about my 21st later, as I’m about to go to bed, but I prank called David and pretended I was drunk. He was quite convinced until I dropped the act.
I also called Brian, but had to leave a fake drunk message instead. I couldn’t resist.
I like the bird story:) Way to be a great bird catcher. Hope things are going well!
Hilarious description in chasing a bird around a classroom… And what about Battlestar Galactica’s new episdoes? Wow. I love how quickly they seem to be resolving a lot of the unfinished episodes to get them back in space again. And Lee Adama needs to go away. Or lose weight. He is more annoying now than ever before. Admiral Adama, however, is amazing. And Sharon back as a member of the BSG crew? Holy crap! I’m missing my crew to talk about this with… Good thing I’ve got digital cable and didn’t miss an episode! Have you seen Heroes? That’s a good show, too.
I’m loving it here in Algona. I’ll try to get a post written by Wednesday or Thursday if I can, too for xanga. Hope you’re having a great week!
YES!!! That was one of the coolest gifts ever! You always think of the neatest things
I miss you so much! When do I get to see you?
A feathered hand grenade… ohhhh, I miss you! It sounds like you’re having a fabulous time, though – never take it for granted! *hug back*
What are you training for? Hello from South Africa.
What is the difference between a Jesuit priest and other priests. Sorry would help me understand what you are doing better.
Jesuits are the cool priests that all the others look up too.
I clicked over from Umnenga’s site. I’m interested in the lifestyle you’ve chosen to accept.
And as for the parakeet, my grandmother had 7 in a very large cage and it was frequently mayehm at our house as the 4 kids tried to recapture however many of the critters had escaped their cage. Fun memories.