How I Know a Dove Represents My Mom

This Island, Culebra, offers a generous representation of morning doves. Cooing, floating, making sure I know they are there. It’s quite comforting. It has become clear to me in this moment, why, on the morning of my mother’s burial (my birthday) that the Universe presented her to me on the roof of a neighbors home in her condominium complex as a Morning Dove. I knew she was speaking to me the moment I looked up. The sensation was too familiar for me not to recognize it. Perched on the edge, with her mate (Jack!) off to the side, quietly supporting what she was meant to do in that moment. “Here I am” she was saying. “It’s going to be okay. See, Jack is here too and we are free.” I felt the peace in that instant and that overwhelming  knowing that creates tears. I have not ever questioned my initial thought that my mom would show herself to me in the form of a swan and then didn’t. I have been curious at times, like now, to explore why a morning dove made the cut. A swan will always remind me of the image my mother holds in my mind. Strong. Steady. Protective. Sure. Now, however, in what I have come to acknowledge as the new physical form that has evolved from the one I have always known, she is a morning dove. Not just one in particular. She is all. I am coming to understand the significance for me. Morning doves are everywhere. They are at home when I wake up each morning. They are deep into the path of a long Sedona trail and they are abundant on this out-of-the -way island of Culebra. Their mate is never interfering or trying to control, though never far away. Their coo is not loud or overpowering, though gentle and soothing and ever present.  The Universe knows what She is doing, after all. And I am delighted to receive the offering.