I sink into a green armchair next to a window overlooking a row of bungalows in my Chicago suburb. To settle myself, I take a couple of deep breaths and enter a shared silence.

I longed to see them. Those big-billed birds not usually mentioned in the same sentence as Illinois. For two decades, white pelicans have been splashing around in lakes and rivers of my home state, their elongated orange beaks seeking sustenance: turtles, small fish, tadpoles, crawdads and whatever other creatures have the bad luck to be nearby.

This horrific pandemic has taught has many things, among them, the blessings of simplicity. This short reflection appeared in the October 14 version of Notre Dame Magazine online.

Given the darkness of these pandemic times, i hope you find some light in this anthology published by Palamedes Press. My essay, Ode to an Expressway Egret, was published in this 2019 collection containing work by 14 authors. My essay was inspired by a graceful egret I viewed on my evening commute.