Old dog learning

By BECKY NELSON
Bramblings
I  learned something new the other day. I was trekking up the road past a mulch pile covered with discarded vegetables where five or six crows were making a feast, and one of the crows caught my eye. Unlike its jet-black counterparts of the group, it had splotches of white feathers on its back and wings. I was astounded. I had never seen such a crow.

A bit of an Internet research and I found it fairly rare, but not unheard of for crows to have white feathers. About one percent of them have these white accents, due to a condition known as leucism, a genetic mutation. Some are caused by a disease called McDonald’s disease, but most with the disease are in poor health. The crow I saw was not one of the regulars that hang around here, and seemed to be in fine fettle. The others in the group of birds didn’t seem to mind that one looked different from the others and continued to do what crows do. We should take a lesson from that. I imagine he or she was just passing through on the way to a winter destination. Seeing the crow made me wonder if I would have even noticed the little flock of birds if the one that looked different hadn’t been obvious. I doubt I would have even given them a glance. But I did notice, and it made me look more closely. This old dog learned something new.

We recently had a very large black bear hanging around near the house again. It seems “late” for bear to be around still, as we expect them to start hibernating this time of year. I have been delaying putting my bird feeders out, as the presence of bears is not a presence I like. I mentioned the sighting of the big bear to my daughter, who said she had recently read that lots of bears don’t hibernate any more, due to the warmer winters. If there is still food around, they don’t need to sleep. Bears are finding plenty of food with we bird lovers setting bird feeders full of high protein seeds out. The bears find the seed easy pickings for dinner, lunch and breakfast. Yet again, this old dog learned something new.

It’s kind of sad that we need to see something unusual to take any notice. I think this is the greatest thing this old dog learned this week. I need to look a little closer at the ordinary around me. The struggles and worries of those around me shouldn’t have to be the “ordinary” and noticed only when something goes wrong or people’s needs become very evident. We take a lot for granted every day. We need to look a little closer at others and a little closer at ourselves, too. We don’t take the time to learn about or understand what motivates others. We don’t take the time to learn about our differences from one another or even what we have in common with one another. We assume we know what is right and don’t take the time to think about those that have differing opinions, and we certainly don’t seek them out to have civil conversations to try to learn what they are thinking and if there is any crossover with what we think.

I have started really taking time to be “present” this week. When I talk to people I try to make what they are saying register before I make a response. It is enlightening. We see what we want to see, we hear what we want to hear, we react without letting things sink in all too often. We are quick to judge, quick to defend our positions, quick to find fault and are so very slow in looking at things in a different light and trying to understand those with whom we disagree, from those who look different than what we see in the mirror and what is branded in our brains, from those who act, think, talk and live differently than we do.

Maybe the world was trying to teach me something with these two unusual sightings this week. Maybe this old dog learned more about myself than I did about crows and bears this week. Old dogs really can learn new things, and maybe lots more of us old dogs would do the world a favor by learning.

— Becky Nelson is co-owner of Beaver Pond Farm in Newport, NH, family owned since 1780. You can reach her at [email protected].