I’ve noticed an odd occurrence over the fifty some odd years I’ve been on this earth. It first happened in the early ’80s, someone died and within a day or two, while I was still very deep into the grieving process, a roadrunner appeared from nowhere. He didn’t just beep his horn and keep going, he stopped and looked at me for a very long time. It was like the person who had just died was speaking through the roadrunner: I’m still very much alive, be happy. The roadrunner made me smile.

Then several years later, it happened again when my stepfather died. He had died in an automobile accident and my mother was having a hard time. This roadrunner spoke the same message the first one had: I’m still very much alive, be happy.

And again very recently. This time I didn’t know the person had died because I was on vacation. And actually, they hadn’t died yet, they were in a coma. I saw two roadrunners on that trip and both times wondered who had died. When I returned to work after the break, the person in the coma died, and I remembered the roadrunners.

Now I won’t even begin to infer the meaning of this, but there’s something about seeing a roadrunner that has to cheer you up. And as a warning, it isn’t a very scary thing. All I can say is, when I see a roadrunner, someone has died. The roadrunner was a very comforting thing, a reassurance that life goes on.