“Coming home” felt like being a child experiencing something amazing for the first time.
I recalled a childhood memory when I experienced the energy of a stunned bird coming back to life.
I was about six or seven years old, and my family and I were camping in the Adirondacks. We were on a firewood finding expedition with family and friends joining us on our camp weekend.
In those days it was the norm to pile a bunch of kids in the back of a pick-up and head down the road. We weren’t worried about seats, let alone seatbelts, and we were all enjoying the crisp fall air and the wind in our faces.
We stopped along the roadside to pick up some fallen branches and there was a stunned bird in the grass.
My father picked up the bird and dropped it into my hands.
My heart stopped and I felt a wave of emotions come over me.
What do I do now?
I’m touching a real bird.
Oh my goodness, he picked ME to hold this bird.
I felt privileged, scared, and nervous that I wouldn’t Do whatever it was I was supposed to Do “Right.”
I finally choked out my words – what do I Do?
My father looked down at me and very casually said: “Just hold it until it ‘comes to.’ The warmth of your hands will bring it around and when it’s ready it will fly off.”
In my father’s younger years, he was quite a formidable man. He was larger than life to me. Big and muscled, a mason by trade, with a huge heart and a volatile temper. His fingers were the size of sausages and his hand looked as big as a dinner plate.
How did he know what to do? Do you think he is right? How long will it take? Why me out of all these kids? How does he know if this bird is even alive?
As I settled into the task and began to relax my body and my mind, I “felt” this little bird’s energy. I can’t say what that felt like except that I “knew” it was indeed alive. It also felt “still.” Like a lake just before sunset – the water reflecting like glass, the trees motionless and quiet.
After what seemed like an eternity, I began to feel the bird stir. Then tremble.
I could feel and see that it was indeed “coming around.”
The bird “paused.” It seemed to quietly take in what was around it.
I slowly parted my hands, and the bird flew off.
I watched as it departed to the sky, stopping briefly on a branch over my head before it disappeared from my sight.
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