What I learned from A Brave Little Bird…
Yesterday I went to see my wonderful friend Jasmine for a tui-na and tuning forks massage. (if you don’t know what tui-na is, it’s the best thing since sliced tekka) Afterward, I went to the large Asian shopping center on Wolfe Road in San Jose, to the HK Potsticker for takeout. On the way I stopped at the adjacent Ten-Ren for a jasmine peal tea and a bag of tea eggs - mmm, delicious. While I don’t eat potstickers anymore (no gluten for me!) I had their yummy minced shrimp in lettuce cups, always a crowd pleaser.
I sat outside under the walkway roof and admired the fine day and local wildlife while sipping tea and waiting for my takeout order. A small young finch, taking his first steps out of the nest caught my eye in the rafters above me. His entire little body was quivering with nerves and every fluffed feather trembled. Cheeping constantly, he took one hop after the other and finally flittered up to the rafter above, where his mother chirped her congratulations.
“Good boy!” I called out in encouragement. “Way to go!” His siblings in the nest put up an angry, squabbling chorus. As the little finch looked back at them, he seemed to sag, trembling all the harder - I fancied they were not being very supportive.
Mombird flew a few rafters off to a higher beam, turned around, cocked her head and chirped, fixing her offspring with a beady eye. Looking back at his nest-mates, the little fellow trembled even harder and his cheeping entreaties increased in urgency. He made several false starts and I cheered him again, joined by the hostess from the restaurant and a passerby who stopped to see what the commotion was about. I was cheering in English, they in Mandarin. We were all saying the same thing though: “Go on little guy, you can do it!”.
The young’n looked first to his mother, then to the three of us standing on the sidewalk cheering him on. Finally, with a huge cheep, swelled breast and fluttering of tiny wings, he flapped unsteadily but successfully, up to the higher beam.
Mombird clucked over her baby and preened his feathers by way of comfort. The two ladies and I laughed delightedly, called our congratulations, and shook hands before going our separate ways.
This Brave Little Bird reminded me again to pay attention only to those who cheer me in life and ignore those whose sour grapes attitude wastes time and energy with displays of anger, jealousy or attempts to bring us down.
He reminded me to look for and pay attention to those who are supportive, even if they don’t know I can do something, but simply believe I can. And who are willing to give the gift of their Belief to me freely, just for the joy of doing so. This is a gift that is best enjoyed by passing it on. Let others know you believe in them, cheer them on to success! That’s like money in the bank, for when you need someone to cheer you, they’ll be there.
It also reminds me of Abraham-Hicks saying that we are blessed with an “emotional self-guidance system”. When we go for what is purely pleasurable and blissful to us, we will always succeed and attract what is highest and best for us. The Brave Little Bird needed to push through his fear and learn how to fly. While I can only imagine, to quote Jonathan Livingston Seagull, flight is the most purely enjoyable thing for a bird, it’s their reason for being. “I Fly, therefore I Live.”
What is YOUR “flight” - your reason for living? Do you get enough of that in your everyday life? Let’s talk about it. Comment here, below….
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