If we pay attention, experience and synchronicity, cue us when something is afoot. Being present during our interactions with others, and alert to the signs that abound in the natural world, help illuminate our path.

A Feathered Visit

A year and a half ago, as I departed the back door of my office on a summer Saturday, I stopped as my eye caught sight of a brilliant flash of red and yellow. There, sitting calmly in a petite pine, eye level with me, was a bird I had never seen before. It didn’t even appear real to me at first with its extraordinary color and markings.

It was crested, like a cardinal and had a distinct mask across its eyes. Its body color was a soft chocolate, like coffee with a lot of cream in it, gradations of pink were unevenly stirred into the mix. On its wings and the tip of its tail, were red and yellow of the most intense saturation.

The most unusual thing about this bird though, was how it sat perfectly still and did not leave. Although I didn’t dare, I felt like I could have reached in and taken it softly into my hand. I remained with it for several minutes, in awe. Eventually, I went back into the building. When I returned, the bird was still there, waiting for me. Clearly, it had a message.

I mentioned the sighting to a couple people, who did some quick research and reported it to be a waxwing, a cedar waxwing. My own study uncovered that there was also a bohemian waxwing – well wouldn’t that be fitting for someone with a column called The 21st Century Bohemian, I thought? But not having big enough faith in that moment, I dismissed the idea and settled on the notion I had seen a cedar waxwing.

In Animal Speak, the late Ted Andrews writes about the waxwing, noting that “masks are tools for transformation, but most people fear change and transition. The waxwing can show how change and transformation can occur as gently and easily as you desire. The waxwing shows how to use masks, head gear, and paint to create a doorway in the mind, a threshold that you can cross to new dimensions. Like its relative the cardinal, the waxwing has a crest upon its head. This reflects an innate wisdom that it can awaken. It also has ties to ceremonial head gear and the use of it to shift consciousness.”

A Fractured Voice

I recently worked with a shamanic practitioner who performed a soul retrieval, blowing a fragmented part of myself that had been lost, back into my body. This fragmented self, a twelve year old girl, was found deep in a forest, singing like a songbird. But no one could hear her. The part of me that had splintered off was related to my artistic voice. Artists must infuse their work with childlike wonder and vulnerability to manifest his or her full potential. It was up to me now to make that 12 year old feel safe, and to know that I was ready to embrace her and make sure her song would be heard. I had to determine what I needed to do to make her stay, and to integrate her back into my whole self.

Convincing her to stay was a daunting task at first. I was directed to honor my voice with a song – a song that eluded me. The shamanic practitioner explained that this integration could be done over time. I was advised not to pressure myself but instead to set an intention, remain focused and allow things to unfold naturally. Armed with the knowledge of the age I was when this part of me fragmented off – I began to ruminate on my life before and after. Once I relaxed and began to trust in the creative process, clarity started to emerge within days.

One morning, I stumbled upon a column in a local newspaper detailing the bird species spotted during the annual counting of feathered creatures in midcoast Maine. I scanned the list, 34 bohemian waxwings spied over three days it said, not a cedar waxwing to be spotted. Oh, that really was a bohemian that visited me, I realized with some embarrassment—for not having enough faith. More research about the color markings, confirmed once and for all, my winged messenger had most certainly been a bohemian.

As Plain as Day

Then, I set about building a website. As the designer guided me through the process (having done this in an advertising setting for other clients, building a website for myself was a whole different experience) it occurred to me the mermaid logo that represents my Village Scribe brand would need a counterpart to represent my column.

The 21st Century Bohemian is about art, healing and transformation. Two swans, another bird of transformation, have graced the top of it for nearly three years. But placing that art on my website did not resonate with me. I went into creative breakdown around the creation of the public nature of a website, which as an introvert, pushed my buttons big time. I stumbled out of the meeting with the web designer, in an emotional and creative tailspin.

I drove to a favorite mediation space and sat, asking for clarity. The message emerged as if sky written by a 757. The bohemian waxwing needed to nest at the top of this column, singing her song, a symbol of my artistic voice. Like its cardinal relative, the female bohemian waxwing sings. In most bird species, only the male sings. After fifteen minutes, the message that had begun a year and a half ago, emerged before me as a gleaming constellation. The pieces of the puzzle slipped into place.

Creating a Bohemian Waxwing

I knew the perfect artist to draw the waxwing. He, like the original bohemian waxwing messenger, was right outside my back door. Ken Foster runs his architectural design business in the carriage house directly behind the main house where I run my business.

Three years ago, as Ken sat by his mother’s side for extended stretches near the end of her life, he began drawing her. “It was amazing to realize that here was this woman I knew my entire life and yet as I drew her, I became aware of how much I hadn’t seen about her before. I had never noticed how her ear came around and went like this at the bottom,” he recalled, reaching up to demonstrate on his own ear. “Or that her mouth came across this way and then dipped. All these nuances I saw truly for the first time, when I drew her.”

From that point on, Ken began sketching on a regular, daily basis. It was as if his mother, an artist in her own right, was reaching out and bestowing a final gift to her son. A gift that brought healing, providing a creative vessel that helped to ease his pain over losing his mother, and having just divorced. It also allowed him to pay tribute to his mother, a woman “who liked to create beautiful things” in her art and through her gardening.

The portability of sketching holds great appeal for Ken, as his tools fit into a small carrying case and can go basically anywhere he does. “Sketches are not as highly valued as some other visual expressions – like an oil painting. But for me there is so much energy in a sketch. A sketch captures a moment, so they really make you present. They are like a first draft. There is so much life in them,” he said.

Another quality that appeals to Foster is that a sketch “gives the viewer an impression, but requires you to use your imagination to complete the picture.”

Ken Foster is principal designer at B4&After Renovation Design (www.b4-after.com) and loves to travel and sketch and paint in his free time. To see more of Ken’s sketching work you can visit his online sketch blog at www.kfostersketch.blogspot.com.

©2011 by Teresa Piccari

Teresa Piccari is a writer, teacher and creativity coach living in coastal Maine. She is the proprietor of The Village Scribe, a professional writing and editing business, at The Wellness Center in Camden at 71 Elm St. She teaches writing workshops including Memoir, Creative Writing and Mythic Structure, and she also runs the monthly Ducktrap Writers’ Round Table on third Sundays at the Camden Public Library from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Contact her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or (207) 344-7070.