Here I am and as always, a little bit of the different.  I’d love to say my absence of Author's Den entries since April is due to my involvement in the mission for world peace, or I’m  sitting in a large tree to keep loggers from cutting it down and turning it into a tablet, or I’m off saving polar bears, but unfortunately it isn’t anything quite so noble.  Nope, instead I’m trapped in a technical writing project I agreed to do for the state.  Technical writing is so vastly different than creative writing for me that the only way to “get’erdone” is to keep my head in it.  Between wildlife ‘baby’ season and “use a #8,  3/4″ Flathead to fasten cockpit hatch track to deck surface and don’t forget to caulk every screw with 920 sealant,”  creative writing was shoved, hesitantly, to the back burner.  Today, I felt an urgent need to escape everything technical (at least for a little while), so I took a walk on the ceiling.  I’m sure you’ve all done this as a child.  I just never out grew it.  Remember putting a mirror under your chin and walking around on the ceiling from room to room?  When my  schedule (albeit, self-inflicted) doesn’t allow me to get away and the world feels a little too tight, I can appreciate the vast open space of an uncluttered ceiling. The colorless nothingness is inviting when your brain is over-stimulated with inflexible sequenced procedures and so over-stuffed it requires a true rest of absolute down time for sifting.  If you have a mirror out now, don’t forget to lift your leg high when you pass from the living room to the kitchen or garage so you won’t trip over the door entryway .  Hardly any of my rooms have overhead lights, so there was no physical effort demanded to jump over a light fixture like I did as a child.  Walking on the ceiling may be less adventuresome now because the meaning and goal have changed, but certainly no less valued.  I took a few minutes to sit down, rest a spell and admire the emptiness.  When finding that peaceful and quiet environment you need to achieve unencumbered moments meant to restore you is inconvenient or downright impossible for whatever reason, you might try walking on the ceiling.  Just fly away anyway you can!  Talk to you soon.  

Linda Bergman-Althouse, Wildlife Rehabilitator

author of “Save Them All“