Life In Flight

I’m learning only just now that life is a river of ever fleeting moments cascading past us only to be seen or felt by stopping and listening to its silent calls. I stopped long enough yesterday on the Tamarack path to see I was surrounded by a half dozen chick-a-dees. They were chirping and flitting about on the apple branches just a few feet away from me. Joyfully singing their songs of praise to the light of God. I could have reached out and touched them they were so close.

Today I was greeted by a sparrow. I heard the chirp and glanced above my head. She landed on a branch for a moment then flew over to the neighboring tree. In flight she stopped and hovered for a second or two. A sight I’ve only seen one other time last year from a crow. In mid air she stopped and paused fluttering her wings as if it was an awkward movement to stop in mid-flight. Did she stop to signal me or perhaps it was a mating ritual? I know not the answer. Only that I will never forget the sight of the paused fluttering in mid air, much like a dog shaking off after a swim in the water and all the droplets fly away in their own pattern of life and flight.

In these silent encounters and brief moments a soul becomes one with Nature and finds itself new energies and refreshing breath to carry onward into the glory of that which is called life.

Do not wait too long to stop and listen to the fluttering of a birds wings or watch the drop of dew as it falls off the tip of the pine needle. Leaving its old home and moving on to a new place in the sun. Both the needle and the drop of water are forever changed for the brief exchange of time together. And the watcher too is changed for spying the encounter and remembering:

Life is in the moment, only this one single moment exists or matters or has any consequences at all.