Lessons from a finch

This morning while in my bathroom, attempting to comb down my well-slept upon hair, I heard a strange fluttery sound. I thought at first it was my husband, choosing his shirt from our tiny closet on the other side of the wall. This idea was negated when he walked past the bathroom and the sound continued.

I looked out the bathroom window to see what the commotion was. We have a large group of finches who spend the majority of their morning in our maple tree out in the back yard, and their cacaphony seemed louder than ever.

Imagine my surprise when I found one of the finches, apparently stuck to the window screen. The fluttery sound was the little guy attempting to fly away, with his feet firmly clamped around the mesh of the screen. Every few seconds, a couple of his flock-mates would come swooping near him, chirping and fluttering around him in encouragement, but the small bird didn’t budge.

Cooing words of encouragement to him, I gently touched his claws on my side of the screen, trying to determine where he was stuck. He responded by hopping along sideways. Hmm, I thought. He obviously isn’t stuck. By this time my daughter and husband had come into the bathroom to see what was going on. The finch hopped on the screen again, up a little higher but still apparently unable to fly away. He’d flutter his wings, but held tight to the screen. His friends continued their periodic swoop-and-chirp campaign, attempting to help him let go of the screen, but to no avail.

Birds are hard creatures to read. They have no facial expression to show how they feel, and I am completely unfamiliar with avian body language. However, I felt that this little guy was really and truly scared. After all, he could let go the screen, but he just didn’t. Even with the encouragement of his flock, he still held on there for dear life.

I put on some gloves and went outside to the back yard, leaving my family in the bathroom. I approached the little guy gently, touching his back in what I hoped was a soothing motion, all the while sending him a gentle swoosh of Reiki energy, to help him with his innate fear of all things human. Gently I wrapped my hand around his soft and tiny body and lifted him from the screen. In a flurry of feathers, he was away from me, chirping to his friends who had settled in my neighbor’s yard when they’d heard me come outside.

Just like that he was free. He could fly, his feet were not stuck in the screen. There was no physical reason that he couldn’t have let go the screen. Even with the encouragement of his peers, the little bird was scared to let go. Being perched vertically on the screen, I can only surmise that he was frightened to let go because of the strange angle and perhaps a fear of falling.

Drinking my coffee later on, and listening to the cacophony that is finches in the morning, I realized that we all need a little help and encouragement now and then. It’s so easy to hold on, to stay with what feels secure and familiar–even if it is slightly scary–because the unknown is always scarier than the known. We need to listen to our flockmates, take the plunge and find out that scared or not, we can soar after all.

Journal: Prayer

Oh, Great God and Goddess

Bless those that come to You for comfort and love.

Hold them in your compassionate heart, soothe their tears of loss and fear.

Great God and Goddess,

Hear the pleas of the brokenhearted, the cries of those who have no one else to hear them.

Bless the ones who can no longer care for themselves, and those that care for them.

Bless the needy, the lonely, the hungry and cold, and keep them warm on the dark nights of the soul.

Great God and Goddess,

Bless me as well. Let me be your tool, let me be the outreach of your touch.

Grant me the compassion to help those whom I serve, and grant me the heart to find the humanity in all.

Great God and Goddess, bless us all as we walk this path. Hold us well in your hands, and deep in your heart.

Journal: On Love

 

Each time anyone comes into contact with us,
they must become different and better people
because of having met us.
We must radiate God’s love.
We must know that we have been created for greater things,
not just to be a number in the world,
not just to go for diplomas and degrees,
this work and that work.
We have been created in order to love and to be loved.
Love does not measure. . . it just gives.
Mother Teresa
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This is a beautiful quote. It says so much about what to strive for as we bump along our journey. So many people strive for success, be it financial or other, when in reality, all we need to do is just love. Plain and simple. Spirit is composed of energy and energy is supported by love. Whether you believe in God, Goddess, Higher Power…whatever name for it. That energy and pure spirit is just love and a piece of it resides in each of us.
If something isn’t working…if the love just isn’t happening and it is causing great sorrow or pain, then move away from it because it is counterproductive to what you need to do. You should not live thru great sadness or suffering just because you think that the pain brings you to greater insight. It doesn’t. We are not meant to feel emotional pain all the time. We are meant to revel in the joy and love that is given to us in such abundance. We do not need to self-flaggellate in order to find God or to find spiritual strength and being. We do not need to stay in a place that hurts us or others because of the what if or the maybe….Life is to be lived and life is to love. That’s it. This is not to say that we walk away from others that need us because we are unhappy and put ourselves first. But that we open our hearts and allow love—shiney and clear and bright as the sun–to flow. It is there. Remember that when you speak a heated word, or withhold a kind one. You need to be one with the energy that is within us all and that energy is first and foremost love. Its the kind word, the unsolicited compliment, the willingness to learn and grow, the ability to see beyond the physical into the realm of what makes each and every one of us unique yet completely the same. Find within you the understanding that we are all bouncing along the same frequency, it’s a matter of tuning in to see the similarities in each other. We all want to find happiness. We all want to cherish and be cherished. We all desire the closeness and companionship found in a great friendship or a great romance. Don’t deny it to yourself or others. Live and love in the moment. That stranger that you smile at might just become your best friend. That person on the corner holding the will work for food sign might be your father or brother. That person who is crying at night when no one is looking might be you someday. Love yourself, love your neighbor. Love your life. THat is the simple prescription. Be kind to things smaller than yourself. Don’t be afraid to let go of pain, because it is simply not part of the equation.

Journal: Spiritual Handfasting for a year and a day

Beginning on 10/31/08 up to 11/1/09, I will committ myself to living a Wiccan lifestyle.
I will immerse myself in the Wiccan way, and will walk the path for a year and a day.
I am not foregoing my current and past belief systems, but instead I am concentrating on one of them, in order to better understand myself and my relation to Creator.
Being a solitary practitioner and the only ‘real life’ wiccan of whom I am aware (although I know there are more out there), I will attempt to find new paths to the old ways.
I’ll journal my journey, both here and in private.
I welcome others on the path I am undertaking.

What grows in your garden?

When I came home from work last night, it was dark outside and the air was just dripping with humidity. I looked at my garden as I walked toward the door, as I always do. I paused to inhale the sweet scent of lavender, the peppery scent of the bee balm, and the lemon-pepper of citronella. Ahh…so refreshing after the intense smells of the hospital.
I stood for a moment out by my little garden and took inventory. The foxglove are near done blooming but I am letting them go to seed in order to spread. The datura are sprouting nicely, even tho I got them in late. Hostas are stretching their purple blooms to the sky. Daisies are sleeping peacfully. On the other side, the spiderwort’s purple blooms lay closed for the night, the bleeding heart was spreading gracefully, and a few rogue sprigs of mint poked thru.
I sighed happily. I think I am happiest looking at my garden. Looking at the earth’s blessings, the Mother’s blessings. An investment in a plant or flower is a worthwhile investment because it beautifies the world, and it feeds the earth.
Later, I started wondering what else grows in a garden?
If Mother is in us, then we are Earth as well…what do we cultivate in our own personal gardens?
The blooms that we nurture…love, friendship, peace…we need to care for those. We must be watchful for the weeds as well, and pay attention to balance between the blossoms and the weeds.
I cultivate my garden carefully, both my outside garden and my inner garden. I watch and examine as sprouts take hold, nurture them and lavish them with love and sunlight. The weeds as well, are watched and cared for. I examine them closely, try to find the beauty in them, until they no longer become weeds but are a productive part of a loving garden.
Translated internally, this means that its important to examine all the blooms in your garden. The bright and the dark, the flowers and the weeds. Remember that a weed to one person is a lovely flower to another. Look at your blooms, water them and watch them grow. Give thanks for them. But look to your weeds too. What can you do to make them beautiful blooms as well?
The weeds of anger, of hate, of spite…what can you do to turn them into beautiful blooms. You can pull them, you can discard them but they will only sneak back again. Instead, why not turn your bloom of anger into something beautiful? Take your anger and channel it into something productive. Work for change. Learn that hate isn’t the answer. Use your weeds to promote the more lovely parts of your garden, until the weeds themselves become flowers as well.
Happy gardening!