Kingfishers, Cleaners, and Copacetic Cashiers

The kingfisher swooped into the canal right in front of us and emerged with a little fish wriggling in his beak. Just as swiftly he flew back in the direction of his comfort tree. Not the ambush tree he had just swept down from, thick enough for camouflage and leaning conveniently over the water; his comfort tree was a skinny little thing farther away, a place he could safely perch and hold a commanding view of any who might come to interrupt his dinner.

R and I squealed in delight and began praising him loudly. What a deft kingfisher! What a beautiful dive! What an impressive catch!

Just before reaching the tree, he wheeled around and flew back towards us, circling right before our faces, proudly showing off the fish, who airborne and skewered kept trying to swim away from a fate the canal could no longer fend off. Kingfisher went back to his comfort tree to feast. His backtracking had had no other purpose we could discern than to bask in our admiration.

It’s a touching moment. This is R’s first time kayaking, and I’m lucky enough to be alongside her. And we’re both lucky enough to be coming back from a beautiful bay where the egrets are preening and the cormorants are feeding as the dying waves and the westering sunbeams sparkle in their decline. And we’re joyous to be sharing the weekend with even more friends, as our local anarchist collective has finally found time for a retreat, for two days of games and conversation and cooking and facilitated conversations on burnout and loss and transformative justice and neighborhood organizing against gentrification.

With autumn just arrived it feels like a ceremony of gratitude, and the vibe extends beyond those two days and greets us again when we return to our neighborhood. Over the last two autumns we’d been noticing how clearly the local squirrels, like that kingfisher, dialogue with our praise. How they stop to hear our compliments of the acorns they find, or flaunt tails whose auburn hues we’ve just remarked on, how they linger and listen to our voices and watch our faces the more we exalt them.