Birdie's Story
Well, to begin with, I hesitated to write my story down because it seemed to me that it was so special to my heart and I didn’t want to sound like I was making it up. Then I begin to think that maybe there were others that may have had similar experiences and if I didn’t write mine down, then maybe they wouldn’t either. So for what it is worth, here it is:
I was in St. Louis on a business trip and had taken a few vacation days to enjoy the city with my husband, Clyde, who accompanied me. We went to many places in the city, one was the Butterfly House, a wonderful attraction, so many of the colorful butterflies, many I had not seen before. Then we were off to the St. Louis Zoo.
As we walked through the zoo looking at all the animals, hearing the happy sounds of children we heard a sound, haunting and beautiful. We began to walk around the different circles of animal cages to find out what was making this beautiful music. Finally we found a building located somewhere in the middle of the zoo where the music was flowing and dancing out of the openings and doorways. When we went inside we stood on the second floor where you could look down in the center and see the person playing the NAF. Stayed through the entire performance and when everyone left we slipped down to the first floor and I was able to approach Mark Holland and ask about this beautiful instrument. Mark had played several flutes that day and he took the time to talk to me a little about them. He gave me his card and said “when you are ready to purchase one, give me a call”. Well, I went home and couldn’t get the sound of the flute out of my head. Months went by, finally I e-mailed Mark and he worked with me to find a good flute maker.
After I received my flute (which is another story) I still could not play it. Searched all over the internet and finally came across Twohawks’ contact information. At this time Clyde was having surgery in Florida and would be there for several weeks at a time, traveling back and forth to recover and then going back for more surgery. I was very apprehensive about contacting someone I didn’t know, especially someone I found on the internet. But the flute kept calling me and I contacted Twohawks via the internet. The first thing I heard when his e-mail came up was the sound of the eagle’s cry. After several e-mails he asked if I would like to come and visit him. My journey had begun.
