Mamakat's: Seven Wonders

Mamakat's Prompt: List your life's Seven Wonders. Describe the most amazing 7 things you've seen with your own two eyes. Okay, but it was hard to narrow it down to just seven.

7. The Sacrament of the Last Supper, Salvador Dali

I am not big on Dali's work; it seems to me that he did a few too many drugs. But I was struck by this painting as I walked through the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. There's just something ethereal about it, like you will reach out to touch it and it will disappear like smoke.

Source: en.wikipedia.org via Tina on Pinterest

6. Castle Neuschwanstein

This is the castle that Disney borrowed for his theme park. If I remember correctly, King Ludwig of Bavaria built this. He was crazy(he really was!), but his castle is breathtaking. He built a couple more, including a castle in the middle of a lake, but this is his masterpiece.

Source: en.wikipedia.org via Tina on Pinterest

5. Washington, D.C.

Forget the politics for a moment. The capital of our country IS history. When I lived there, I spent hours of my free time just exploring. Everywhere you turned, a piece of our past was there. I walked out of a training session, and there was Ford's Theater. I got lost one day, and there was the Octagon House. It used to be that you could just walk into the White House during the Christmas holidays; they had an entire room full of gingerbread houses. I hate that some idiots ruined that for all of us. It would have been great to see the look on my son's face when he saw those houses.

Source: google.com via Tina on Pinterest

4. Statue of David

Yes, I actually got to visit Italy and see this gorgeous work of art. And it is truly beautiful. It's bigger than you might think. I mean the statue. Michelangelo must have tapped into the divine that is in all of us when he created this.

Source: google.com via Tina on Pinterest

3. The World Trade Center

My friend won a trip to New York City, and we got to stand pretty close and just look up. And up. And up. I will never forget the sense of awe that I felt that day. It was a symbol way before it was knocked down.

Source: media-1.web.britannica.com via Tina on Pinterest

2. The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

My father got his masters degree from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. I went to his graduation, and I got to sit in the cathedral. This is called "America's Catholic Church". Even if you are not the least bit religious, tell me that you wouldn't be awed. I was! And I'm pretty sure that those eyes were following me, too!

Source: nationalshrine.com via Tina on Pinterest

1. And the greatest wonder of all...

My Miracle. He's just plain awesome.

Birds are Amazing Creatures

Mothers everywhere understand that any car that contains a child will, over the course of time, accumulate a sediment of cookie crumbs, cracker crumbs and the "what the heck is that?" item on the floor.  Often, as I am putting my son in his car seat, I will try to grab as much of this sediment as I can scoop up and throw it outside the car.  I am not littering.  Rather than throw away those crumbles of food, I am feeding birds with them.  After I get in my car and am putting on my seatbelt, I'll usually see one or two grackles who have spotted the morsels and have come to eat them.  The other day I threw out a couple of large cookie parts, and I figured that a bird would take a while to eat those.  What I didn't expect was to see a grackle pick up the piece and take it to a spot where another car had left a puddle of water from their a/c unit.  As I watched, the bird dipped the cookie part into the shallow puddle to soften it!  It made me chuckle, because I don't think I know five people who would be smart enough to think to use that puddle in that way, let alone any other members of the animal kingdom. 

I like to watch birds. They are pretty successful survivors.  I have a bird feeder set up in the back yard and I can see it from the window in the kitchen.  I get the occasional grackle, but mainly doves, finches, etc.  I have passed many a pleasant Saturday morning watching birds, and the squirrels, as they stop by for a snack.  Occasionally a hawk will stop by, since I have a number of white-winged doves who have become nice and plump hanging out at my place, but that's the Circle.  My cats will sometimes try to catch the birds, but the one time Tiger actually was able to get a bird, he was so shocked that he immediately dropped it. 

One morning when I was at Walgreens checking out a grackle hit the window pretty hard.  I came out of the store and it was laying on the sidewalk.  I figured it was dead.  I got in my car and as I was getting ready to leave, a group of grackles gathered around the body.  I made the assumption that the other birds had gathered to eat their dead comrade--food is food, and everybody's got to eat.  I was wrong.  As I watched, a big black grackle approached and grabbed one of the legs of the fallen bird.  He pulled at it pretty hard.  Then he did it again.  Just as I thought, "What the heck?" the bird I thought was dead sat up(as much as a bird can sit up, but you get the idea).  The other birds seemed to gather around their fellow, and it almost seemed like they were trying to help him wake up.  After another minute or two, the bird that I thought was dead flew off, and his flock took flight with him.  Watching that little miracle made my day.