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People sometimes think about what they don't have, but I submit to you, think on those things you do have. Friends, Family, Health and a myriad of things I could list here. As an example, I thank God I have sight, and hearing and just the ability to walk around as a normal human everyday. Be thankful for what everyone takes for granted. The place I returned from, most folks don't have that luxury. Be Thankful for the time you have to spend with the folks that are alive and you still have the time to make amends, for one day you will not. But most of all give thanks to God for giving you one more day to do the right thing. I pray for the ones we lost, I hope their families can find a way to be thankful for there efforts in keeping everyone safe as can be. And most of all I am thankful for each and everyone of you for helping me get Sukei home.

We learn more from our struggles and that makes us better people overall. Something I learned from Miss Gilbert helped me to understand my family of origin a little better. A parrot's mental health and outlook on life is a combination of nature, nurture and life experience. As we make small differences in our daily lives, the history of experience changes ever so slowly, in grey time. When Miss Gilbert came to us, I had no clue what I was getting myself into. I just knew that we were going to learn together. I didn't know if she would ever talk until the day I picked her up. Sarah didn't want to advertise that this little creature could say some wonderful things as not to influence someone wanting a novelty. She also didn't want to have someone dissuaded by the prolific cussing. That is probably good that I was naïve. Now that we are making progress with Miss Gilbert and she is showing a different, kinder, gentler side of her innate character, I am ever so grateful to the members here saying how wonderful it would be when our work together started to show promise. What I needed was a shift of thinking from what I believed was success five years ago to what I know today was is hard work. She has done some incredibly hard work shaking loose her baggage. I am impressed that she is willing to show me her heart. I am more impressed that she is learning to play and to be light hearted and joyful. It may take a lot of looking at her sideways when she doesn't seem to know I am there to see these glimpses, but each time it makes me so grateful to know her. Of course, she has been looking at me sideways the whole time getting a "read" on me too. There where early days when I was concerned that I had jumped into the deep end without checking how far I was from the edge, but even in the worst of times I had all of you ready to toss me a lifeline and help me along a little. I have no regrets. All along the hardest thing I have had to do is to wait. I have always thought you couldn't reach success without doing. Miss Gilbert has taught me that success is about being, just being.

For those of you like myself who have fallen in love with and have been following Rhea, the naked bird. She passed away a few days ago. How sad, but she was given the best possible life she could have from her owner. I will miss her daily posts on Facebook, and Instagram. RIP Rhea❤️❤️❤️