It's Just Another Day
Dear Diary,
The other day I saw 5 bluebirds.
Started with just one who sped past me, flashing that otherworldly blue and stopped me in my tracks. I watched it land on a wire and stared up at it, telepathically sending it a message to please fly some more.
Instead, it just sat and I got to appreciate its white belly and rust colored ring around its neck.
I was determined to wait it out. I usually spot them in groups; figured there were likely more around - and just like that - another and then another…
Soon I was watching 5 of them move from wires to bushes, dive-bombing themselves to the edge of a lake.
Why do our hearts flutter and open at the sight of these birds? What is that - the sudden joy that bursts forth? I don’t know, but it’s real. I don’t know but it’s telling us something essential.
Eventually I took leave - reluctantly - to continue my walk in very cold temperatures, absorbing the sighting as a good sign for the new year. Why not? Being immersed in an experience of wonder and simple unexpected delight, is at the very least a good sign.
It’s nothing short of a mundane kind of magic - how quickly nature can reorient us back into its enduring fold.
Yeah, yeah, world falling apart, I know. Things I should probably be doing to prepare better, yes. I’m here, a member of the human family, in the midst of unspeakable misery between wars and ‘plagues’ with real deaths and real suffering, I know.
It effects us. We feel it. How could it not?
But then a blush of bluebirds come and by simply noticing, the world changes back into a magical place.
What is really happening in that moment? Something is calling us back into a remembrance, a deeper truth. An ongoing invitation and respite from the madness of a world steered by madmen, into increasing chaos.
How do we know it will all ultimately be okay?
Well, the bluebirds, and the trees and the sunlight on the lake, and the grasses going into their winter selves and the silent rocks and flowing rivers… they announce it.
Nature is not an escape from the world. Netflix is. Nature is more like a nurturing mother, a great big manifest Spirit that can fit us all in its lap, soothe the worries, comfort the sadness and make it all okay.
We head back to the playground of this dystopia, fortified and renewed. Better equip to face the bullies intent on disrupting.
More and more I realize what it offers us. More and more I realize how far we’ve strayed.
I was going to recap the state of things, how the unwind is proceeding.
But now, I think not. Instead I will share a stack that my heart opened to reading this morning.
As we move into 2024 - and can expect more challenges - I’m looking for ways to move through it all, with my heart still open, fortified by those qualities humans - part of the Natural world after all - already hold, continually develop (particularly under pressure) and naturally inspire.
Ground yourself in the ground. Expand yourself into the sky.
We already have everything we need.
Some more bluebirds…
Thanks for reading.
Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/kathleen87247
What a glorious photo of bluebirds! No wonder (correction, all wonder) the phrase is 'bluebird of happiness.'
Ahhh....I totally get being connected to 'place'. I have strong ties to our place that we built. A place of logs that were from Yellowstone...some even with burn marks still on them from the 88 fire. (house is from standing dead, we didn't use green logs) As I stake my claim, I have visitors and regulars that I watch for each year...the Phoebes, the Orioles...Bluebirds are really rare and for the state bird of Idaho, you think they would be easy to find. Nature goes on naturing and it makes me positive that it knows something we obviously don't because it has endured and continues on while we fret and harumph. I look forward to the signs each season that all is well despite what the news could be saying. When the birds are silent I wonder what is wrong. Just simple connection at a most primal level and it gives comfort.