This is what gets me about these owls. They’re wild animals and apex predators. I’m positive they know me, they know our household and our routine, but they are not a TAME lion. They are wild and free and they do their own thing. But it is possible for a mere human to change herself, her own awareness and her own skills, such that she sees them, their individual personalities and preferences, their routines and habits. A mere human — me! — went from complete owl-obliviousness to thinking to herself, “Self, I wonder if there is an owl watching you prune the jasmine,” and thereafter having the knowledge to find out. There was in fact NOT an owl watching me prune the jasmine, because the owl in the relevant favorite nap spot was sound asleep, but that’s not the point. It just makes me conscious of how much I don’t know and don’t see even in my very immediate environment, and that is a weighty realization. Anyway: this is probably Simon, but whoever they are, they are a tiny miracle.