The Glad Bird of Happiness

Sometimes, uninvited and unexpected, some glad bird of happiness lands on your shoulder. If you’re smart, you’ll keep very still and listen to it sing. Don’t ask where it came from or why, don’t wonder what message its carrying, don’t doubt whether you deserve the honor of its presence and certainly don’t reach for your i-Phone to snap a selfie or record the song. Just be still. Just listen. 

 

And so it happened for me today. At a time when the weight of this suffering world bears heavily down on our shoulders, when the giant hands of fear, real and imagined, come clawing from below to pull us down, when each ding of the phone with its DEVASTATING NEWS! text is a spade thrust into the dark earth to upset our footing, this delicate little bird came and sang. 

 

And such a sweet song it was. When it flew off, I felt as light as one of its proverbial feathers, unfettered, rising up for no discernible reason. 

 

Afterwards, that’s when the questioning mind starts poking and prodding. Was this a foretelling of how I will feel on November 4^th, a gifted coming attraction from the other world? Or was it the last little ray of sunshine before the blade comes down? Was it the real light at the end of the tunnel or the Murphy’s Law version, the headlight of the train coming right towards you?

 

We shall see. But for at least one brief moment, I felt blessed by a sweet chord of harmony arising unexpectedly from the clanging dissonance we all have suffered so long. 

 

And for that, I am grateful.