JOE ROVANI Laramie

In a dream, my deceased father was driving my crew cab pickup, and I was in the back seat where my kids usually sit. When my father was alive, he was very afraid of going to cities and he would never drive in city traffic (!), but in the dream he was perfectly at ease cruising 65 mph in rush-hour bumper to bumper thruway traffic. The traffic wound its way up and down highway interchanges in close proximity to embankments and people standing on the curb. To my disbelief, he wasn’t even paying attention much, and it was as though he didn’t even have his hands on the steering wheel. His window was down and he spent all of his time looking sideways out the window at the scenery and traffic. In total opposite countenance, I was anxiety-ridden in the back seat. I remember thinking, what if the car in front of us stops short, what if someone steps from the curb and tries to cross in front of us, what is he doing staring out the window instead of watching where he is going, what if…., what if…., what if…?

I then turned around because we were aware of a type of emergency or rescue vehicle passing us. However, the vehicle was not passing us to respond to an accident or wreck in front of us, but it was passing us to go ahead and prepare our way. It was like a police escort.

Transitions in the dream include the following:

· from (emotional) fear to (spiritual) faith

· from having to be in control to allowing our Father to take us where we need to go

· from worry and anxiety to alert and relaxed

· from worrying about the wreck that lies ahead to an understanding that our authority escort is taking over to lead the way

Isaiah 32:17 The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.

A few years ago we were plagued in the spring and summer months by groups of starlings. Starlings are boisterous, loud, and very aggressive, and I was absolutely tormented in my yard by starlings that chose to nest in our trees. Every time I went outside, they would screech, swoop and dive bomb to the point of making me duck and bob to avoid being struck. When I went outdoors to move lawn sprinklers, I would take to waving a tennis racket over my head as I worked one-handed. Mowing the lawn was a nightmare, and I often had to run and take cover next to the house. I tried spraying them with a hose (they always stayed just out of reach), throwing rocks (they effortlessly dodged them), wearing a big straw hat (I looked like a scarecrow); my daughter even wrote a very comical essay for her English class about a crazy man who would go outside at sunrise to shake his fist and swat at birds with a garden rake. Deep inside, I considered it a spiritual attack and on many occasions, completely flustered, I did everything I could to assert authority over the torment. My authority waned as I was forced to run at birds converging at me from multiple directions. I did a bit of research and found out that starlings are great vocal mimics (hmm), and they are often known to take over and drive away other species (birds assumedly but they almost entirely drove away one particular homo-sapiens).

The past few years I am pleased to say the attacks have ceased. Remarkably, the starlings have been replaced by doves. The particular species of dove now making their home in my yard is the Eurasian Collared Dove. Although they are not originally indigenous to North America, much of North America is now their home. Eurasian Collared doves sit in trees, on power lines, telephone poles, on the roofs of houses and coo incessantly. I cannot go anywhere in my yard without hearing them coo; as I look around to find them, they will suddenly appear and flash their white tail feathers as they alight. Even more remarkable is that they do not migrate from where I live, and trust me; it takes a hardy species to weather winter at 7500 ft above sea level on the bitter cold windswept plains of Wyoming. Eurasian collared doves are monogamous. One thing I have noticed about these doves is that they are not very good nest-builders (I have taken this as a reminder that the sticks and twigs of this earth are not our eternal home). No sooner are the chicks born, and they venture out clutching the tree branch even though they cannot yet fly, because their nest is crumbling. Although mature doves are known to chase away predators, in contrast to starlings, Collared Doves are not known to drive off other species.

Recently I was pondering the spiritual significance of the change in our “atmosphere”. On this website, another dear soul posted the bible verse that I was in need of hearing:

See! The winter is past;
    the rains are over and gone.
Flowers appear on the earth;
    the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
    is heard in our land.