The traffic roars by my house on schedule today. A current of commuters, trucks, and Friday frolickers flows every morning and recedes again in the evening like the ocean tide.

Traffic is not beautiful like the ocean buts it sounds like one and acts like one. Well, it’s an ocean of people, I suppose? I often wonder what the people doing? Where are they going? I am not a fan of driving in traffic, but it flows by my house taking the souls it harbors with it.

Today Buffy was curious about the traffic as well. Buffy is my gentle hen that floats like a cottony cloud around my yard. Hens have sensory perception that I do not. Their nervous systems I notice pick up signals and cues from the environment that I am not aware of. Perhaps they are ‘tuned into another frequency’ so to speak.

When I saw my hens by the side of the road, they looked rather at ease. There was a lull in traffic that time of day. Lunchtime. So, no cues from their environment kicking in for the hens. I am, of course, experiencing nervous system alarm because I “know” what trucks are. This explains when you speak to hens, (or people), why you get no response. Unless the listener “knows” the experience or word to which you are referring, they will not understand you.

If you’ve lost a love one you “know” pain. Pain is not a 4 letter word you instinctively avoid. One cannot understand you or the pain of loss unless one has experienced it.

The Bridgerton series on Netflix character, “the Duke of Hastings,” marries a woman from a happy family. “Happy” and “family” are cardboard cut outs in his mind. The Duke sees those things, but “knows” them he does not. Having been abused and abandoned as a child, he’s an alien to both.

Buffy does not know what “traffic” means. “Pain” is just a four letter word to some. Sadly, “happiness” is elusive to many.

My gentle hen, Buffy, pecked by the side of the road today. The rush of traffic and the souls it harbors ebbing by. There must be a universal language, that helps us understand our world and each other? So, we can “know” love, “know” happiness, “know” danger (so we can avoid it). Maybe it’s the experience of anything is how we “know” a thing? The only way we can “know” anything?