Be the Bird

The bird awakens in the morning and immediately tackles the task at hand. The bird lives in the now. It does what is required of it now. It does not spend time wallowing in thoughts of the past or dreaming of the future. It is alive now and it lives for now.

The bird must eat, so it goes to familiar places where it knows there is food to eat. If there is no food to be found at these places, it does not worry or complain or even think about this. It simply continues its search for food, which is required now.

The bird is totally aligned with its purpose. It does not know this or think about this. It simply is this. The bird is its purpose. It does what must be done now, and for the bird there is no other time. There is no time at all - only now.

If a nest needs building, it selects a location, gathers materials and works until the nest is built. If food needs to be collected for chicks, the bird does this without hesitation. The task at hand, the present moment, is what the bird knows and what the bird lives.

The bird is not troubled by thoughts of itself, and this is where we differ from the bird.

If the bird were like us, it would very likely not survive.

The bird does not awaken on Monday morning to the sound of an alarm clock, thinking that it will be okay to stay snug in the nest for just another 15 minutes. Once arisen, it does not say how much it hates Mondays because it is the beginning of another work week at a job it detests and finds unfulfiling, unrewarding and unsatisfying. The bird does not read the newspaper to keep itself abreast of all the horrors taking place in the world, or so that it can complain about the many injustices that exist, the ever rising price of gas, and the idea that just about everything that could be wrong with the world is wrong.

The bird does not watch television to keep up with the lives of celebrity birds. Which ones are those anyway? Flamingos? Toucans? It is not mindlessly addicted to soap operas that keep it staring at a screen for hours watching other birds fighting over other birds and worms and nests. It does not watch wildlife programs. Why would it want to watch programs about nature? It lives in nature and knows everything it needs to know to survive.

The bird does not go to work in a bad mood or with a hangover and say, "Well, I just won't bother collecting as many worms as usual today. I just don't feel like it." The bird is not excoriated by a bird manager for arriving a minute late at the puddle where it bathes or at the field where it digs for worms.

The bird never calls in sick.

The bird does not reach the end of its work week and seek to escape from its life by drinking alcohol or watching even more TV than usual. The bird's work week does not end.

The bird does not attend any church to assert to other birds that it believes in some higher being - the creator of all birds, and of all the misery in the world.

The bird does not have any beliefs at all. It knows all it needs to know, and does all it needs to do. It has no need to believe in anything. The bird is and lives its purpose.

The bird is here for a reason. It is here to do what it does now. Just the same as you are.

Be the bird.