Something I've Noticed About Birds

Thought for the day:


A bird should not be captured. If she is, she will not fly. And when she can, she will fly away.
 

A woman points out: "That's a conundrum!"

I respond: It's something I've noticed about birds. 

She replies: "Sometimes they will stay a while though. One never knows what a bird will do."

And I say:

I raised a dove. One time, she flew out my open door. When I called her name, she turned around and landed on my head. The next time she flew, she bolted. For days, I wandered the neighborhood crying out "Punchy!! Punchy!!" I positioned her cage, door open, on my roof. The neighbors must have thought I had gone mad. They would have been correct. I was mad with grief for another year. And yet, I truly wanted her to be happy and free.

 

Sometimes I still find myself looking closely at doves for the little yellow band I had fashioned for her leg. Doves don't live long enough for that, yet still sometimes I look.

My grief was partly worry. I had raised her. She had bonded with me. She would eat food from the dog's bowl while he ate. She would ride around on the back of the tortoise. She slept on the top edge of books while I read. I gave her fresh water. What would she do now, suddenly out in the big world? My grief was loss, but more, it was worry. I most wanted her to be happy and well. That was my lesson in true love.

May all beings be well.

 

Protect Water, Protect Our World

 

#GoVegan!

May all beings be well and happy

Powerful People

Betty White was an ardent supporter of animals. Here's an article about some of her work, and how you can continue to support some of the causes she supported:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/02/us/betty-white-animal-charities-iyw/index.html

 

 

 

And, Caroline Myss cites this example of the kind of mystical awakening that feels deeply disturbing, and which leads to changes in behavior:

"...let’s say that one day while staring out the window in a type of quiet reflective mood, you are suddenly immersed in a state of full and active awareness that all animals are “conscious beings”. They are not, as most human beings perceive them, just mindless creatures running around without the capacity to “feel”, to “bond”, to “fear”, to sense changes in the Earth environment. They have an active consciousness. They feel gratitude for human kindness and horror at human cruelty. They are terrified to be hunted down and mourn the loss of their young.

"...The pain of it nearly crushes the life and breath out of you. Days – no, weeks – are required for you to recover. Your world looks the same, but nothing is the same. You feel as if every tree is looking at you where once it was you looking at the tree. Are you going mad? You cannot help but wonder this. Then you think that you will go mad unless you find a way to respond, to contain a truth so unimaginable but so real. You know it’s real, more real than the “living sacred conscious ground” upon which you walk."

 

May all beings be well and happy.