The winds were howling today, winter has finally set in bringing rain and a coolness to the air that is called summer in England, a chill factor of 15 degrees. Time to say goodbye to summer yet again but the birds are having none of it, they remain nibbling away at the berries fairing the bad weather, they know that a cloudless sky is just a day away.

I sat on the patio/porch and looked out at the flock of birds sitting in the tree where there must have been close on 30 brightly coloured blobs with wings. They were chirping away in happiness when a light gust of wind came through giving them a fright, all took to flight in search of refuge but 3, they remained hanging on to the branch not resisting its movement. After a few moments the gust of wind died a way and I watched as they readjusted their positions, fluffed out there feathers realigning them with their beaks, the other birds returned and all were chirping once more. Not a moment later a gust came through again scaring the flock away once more, who remained but the three brave little mites. Once more they hung on for their lives, when the gust died away once more they went through the whole process of grooming once more.

These three birds held strong through the winds almost as if they understood how it works and why it happened, they were fearless in facing it and seemed to know how to work it unlike the others that fled en mass for cover.

What is the wisdom in those three birds? Are they the ones that were unwise to stay planted on that branch or were they the wise ones that had taken the time to understand how nature worked and why things happen the way they do, which is right?

Perception and interpretation are strange creatures so I will give you mine and you are welcome to share yours.

My interpretation is that of fear, why we fear. I feel that those birds that fled were fearful of something they did not understand, they did not want to learn the signs of a dangerous wind or a harmless one. In life we often see something that is dangerous because we don’t understand it, we run from it without pausing for thought or learning about firstly the reasons of/for our fear or how that one thing that scares us works.

In life we jump to conclusions which wastes time and energy, those birds that fled could have stayed with the other three enabling them to have more time in the open air before the rains came. Instead of cowering from those things we fear we should rather embrace them, try to understand them and how they work. By doing that we give ourselves time to be free and to live not cowering in the dark corner where we miss out on so much that life has to offer us.

The wisdom of the birds – don’t hide from things that you don’t understand, embrace them and learn from them, adapt to change and live your life fully, moment by moment.