I’m on a quest to free my mind enough so that I am connected to the people and things around me when we share the same space. Today, during practice of this new rest-of-my-life-long quest, I connected with a bird. You might be stopping right here and saying to yourself, “Wait, self, did I just read he connected with a bird? Now what, is going to say he flew?” Yes, I did connect with a bird. And I did fly. The bird was the only living thing in my field of vision at the time, so it makes sense that I connected with it as I was looking for a living thing to connect with. So give me a break on that. The bird, to move along, was in a palm tree, overlooking the pool that I like to work on my quest from, and while in a meditative state, our eyes locked. (You don’t always have to close your eyes when you meditate). With our gazes in the fixed position of pupil to pupil, I wondered, “what does this bird see, from his point?” Then I was there, seeing what the bird sees, looking out over the pool, the pool house, and the dog park beyond, to the street where the traffic was buzzing with morning commuters - many headed to little cubicles somewhere. I was in the bird’s head, seeing through those beady little eyes. The bird, sensing I was there, and hopefully not thinking, “this is weird,” took time to look all around, then fly to another tree for another view, then to another. Each time I was graced with a new perspective of my surroundings. I was seeing it all from a place higher than I cared not to climb in a bathing suit, from a place that would really upset the management at the property if they were to find me there.
The bird lingered for a while on that third tree, then made a noise and flew off around the corner. My mind pieced the path it took together from old files of what that path looked like a week or so ago, then stopped projecting. The connection was lost, and I was back to fully taking in the gentle movement of the pool, alone in its energy, just soaking the experience in.