Come to me let's play little sparrow orphan! Issa I am seventy-eight. I walk to my twice-weekly Tai Chi class for seniors. I am learning how to build a new life. I have gone from living in the Eastern Hemisphere of the world for eighteen years to being reassigned to the Western Hemisphere, to the country of my birth, America—it is foreign to me. I walk through neighborhoods of small houses, cross streets without cows and congested vehicle traffic—(but nonetheless have posts with a button I push, then wait for a flashing white hand that signals I can safely cross). This day, by an upward glance on one of the routes I take, I see a lone sparrow on a bare branch of a small and fully bare tree. I have observed few birds here, whereas in India I was an avid bird watcher, and even had a Greater Coucal appear regularly in unusual locations in metaphysical relationship. I stop in wonder . . . thankful, delighted . . . and speak to it. I keep watching it without movement. I have recognized another who I perceive as alone—as how I find myself at times, even with family and the few kindred souls that I have met. But the strongly empowering patterns of my life before my departure on May 20 are gone. I share minutes with this sparrow. By its head movements, I am aware that I am noticed. It is comforting.