Taking Flight

I love Spring time. I've spent countless hours watching the birds, especially the mama and papa chipping sparrows and their chicks on the top of the column of the front porch where they built a nest upon a nest upon a nest. All day they tirelessly bring insects to the screaming hatchlings. They chatter and fuss when the cats sit in the windowsill nearby and become conspicuously quiet when I walk outside. Yesterday the chicks decided to emerge from the nest and jump around on the top of the column. One fell out but couldn't fly. Then another fell out. I stood sentry in case the neighbors cats showed up for a meal. The little ones just couldn't fly and the fussing and screeching kept my attention for hours. Finally I decided to intervene and try and put them back in the nest. Well, what a mistake that was. I spent forever trying to catch one of the chicks with a soft cloth. I must have looked pretty silly but finally I caught one and put him back in the nest with his siblings, and he immediately flew out and landed right back on the ground. They are too young to leave the nest, so goes my thinking. The sun set and everything quieted down. I looked this morning and the nest was completely empty. Presumably, all four babies had taken flight, or attempted flight. They grow so fast, all the while the parents are inexhaustibly bringing insects to spit into wide open beaks. I saw a big tom cat sitting out on the rock ledge a while ago, right where the baby birds take refuge. Did he eat them? Did they escape? I don't know, but I do know I need to just let it go, and let nature take her course.

I know I'm borrowing from a poem that really speaks to me, but during a class this week there was a brief moment, when, through guidance and energy, I thought I was going to totally explode into a radiant blossom of overwhelming light. I think that spark that resides within each of us is often made more assessable when we are led into that space by another who is tapping into their higher energy and we let go completely and let ourselves just fall into IT. Perhaps this is what happens when we truly let go and taste the nectar of grace. For me, it's like dipping my toes into a cool stream of water and feeling totally electrified by the sensation, only it's not so much a physical sensation as an inner, spiritual one. Thanks to all the yoga teachers whose energy connects into inner territory and allows me to intuit something far greater than anything I know. Those are indeed sacred moments. No more nor no less sacred than watching baby birds trying to take flight for the first time.

I love Spring time, and I love trying to take that inner flight towards the light of self.