Seeing a Bird's Nest

While taking my morning walk, I saw a bird’s nest in a small tree. Enough of the leaves had fallen to reveal a small nest tucked in the very center of the branches. It had been the home of a small bird. It had been a temporary home in which to raise young. It was well built and intact, but it was abandoned. Its purpose fulfilled.

When I was young, there was the question that friends liked to ask. If you could be an animal, what would you be? My answer, “ A bird.” Birds were free. Birds could soar and see from high places. That answer hasn’t changed. I notice and admire birds.

I envy the bird that built that nest. That bird invested time and work to construct that dwelling. But the bird was able to leave that place. It was not attached to what it had done. It could leave it after the nest’s purpose was completed. It was free.

That is what I desire: freedom. To let go of those temporal things. To leave behind what has served its purpose but is no longer necessary. To release the time and work investments and fly into other areas that now call me.

I saw a nest today, and that nest spoke to me of freedom.


Day thirty of the Thirty Days of Seeing