It’s Wednesday morning and in the midst of my morning to do list, I have just stopped. Sat down. Coffee in hand I walk outside with my journal and pen determined to pick this moment of time right out of the air and keep it, captured for all eternity, by the powers of observation and the mighty sword of my pen.
I wait. For a time, even my pen is frozen in flight while I focus on the sounds of birds. So many of them, and it occurs to me that they are more busy than I am, fluttering in constant motion, flying overhead, back and forth, carrying on their constant dialog…
What ARE they doing up there anyhow?
All of nature has work to do. The squirrels are scattered about, scampering up trees and squealing out an irritating sound and my eye turns to my daily enemy the chipmunk who lives under my back porch stoop and who- it seems- has made it his life’s mission to remove all of the dirt from under the porch so it will collapse…a second time.
There are butterflies and bunnies, all fluttering and hopping and going about their business. It passes my mind that not one of them is being bullied by a list of chores or guilt or pressure about their day.
I see no creature of nature out here that seems to be thinking “Oh, if there were only more hours in the day to build this nest, hop in this grass or ruin her porch.”
They just ARE. They just DO. And when the day runs out, they get up and do some more tomorrow with the same energy again. Not worn out, not dragging their sorry behinds. Not stressed out.
My great Grandma, who lived to be long into her nineties, used to say “EACH DAY HAS ENOUGH TROUBLE OF IT’S OWN. DON’T GO BORROWING ANYMORE.”
Which was her way of saying why worry? It will happen when it happens and until then Bah…and with a shrug of her shoulders she would walk away and the subject was dismissed from her mind.
I pick up my coffee, cold now. The words written. What will it change, I don’t know. Maybe if I can hold on to glimpses, and let the day unfold as it will, unforced, maybe it will be more peaceful.
Be more present. More here. No yesterday, no tomorrow. Just here, right now.
Like the birds.
Maybe I will get more done.
