A Warbler’s Tale of Temporary Insanity

My house sister Orinda has always had a connected relationship with our neighbourhood birds. There’s a seagull that pecks at her window if she’s in bed too long. The ravens from across the street come when she caws, announcing a new batch of suet in the winter. Often, a lone sparrow will sit with her for hours at the end of the day in mediation. And hundreds of little feathered friends relish at her seasonal buffet featuring David Suzuki’s peanut butter & seed recipe.

This is the first year since I moved here 6 years ago, however, that a yellow warbler has demonstrated such strange behaviour. 

Orinda had already been aware for a few hours that he had come as a messenger to get her attention before I came on the scene. She’d been listening for its important message, knowing he was there to fulfill her need for peace.

I shot a short video, fascinated, in between simply watching and listening in for what message he may be conveying. We were mystified. Is he eating bugs? No. Is he trying to get in? Is he trying to tell us something?

I even practiced my budding animal communication skills, but they were tainted by Lassie movies, thinking he wanted me to follow him because his mate was in trouble, stuck in the chimney or lying somewhere around the house. But my walkabout turned up nothing.

In our open minded curiosity and desire for clarity, we kept asking.

I even posted a short clip on Facebook and heard back that he thought his reflection was his competition and that he was fighting for his mate. Ah…..

The next morning at 6am, when I came upstairs from recording a Divine Storytelling Time intuitive reading for a client, he was already there.

And he stayed there, repeating the same patterns of flight until about 9pm. What energy! What determination! What futility!

It did, however, give me plenty of chances to play wildlife cinematographer. Another day of fun behind my camera – all the while my heart was listening for messages and reaching out to him in his useless behaviour.

But was it useless? At some point, I shared my interpretation of the messages I was receiving with Orinda.

She delighted in them, acknowledging that both he and the meaning I’d allowed to come through were an answer to her prayers.

So here it is. If you see a reflection of yourself in here somewhere, then may it help alleviate your suffering and bring a layer of peace to your day.

Namaste.

A WARBLER’S TALE OF TEMPORARY INSANITY

Have you ever gotten so caught up in a mental spin
Convinced there was something outside of you to fight about
Wasting your time
Wasting your energy
Wasting your peace of mind
For an illusion of your own making?

Have you ever found yourself defending your perspective
Arguing the measure of your rightness,
Competing for affection,
Jealous of a threat that never existed?

Have you ever butted heads
Fighting to be heard
Only to realize after days of going nowhere
Exhausted from repeating the same mistake
Reliving outdated patterns of thought or behaviour
That all this time
You were the only one there?

What a revelation
To awaken to the truth
That all you saw & believed
Was only a reflection of your own mind
No one was stepping on your toes
No one was clipping your wings
No one was invading your territory
Or pushing against your boundaries
No one was threatening your chance at love
Except you, yourself.
That’s who you were at war with
Battling your inner demons
Projecting your fears upon the world
You made it all up!
Face to face and
Fist to fist with your ego.

Insanity, Albert Einstein said
Is doing the same thing over and over again and
Expecting different results.

And that, dear yellow feathered friend
Is what you’ve come here to show us
Day after day
As you fight your own reflection
Competing with a non-existent foe
For a prize long gone while you were too busy trying to hold onto it.

Oh darling yellow warbler
It’s time to let go of your self-defeating efforts
You’ll never win against an imaginary adversary
Choose love instead
Choose life instead
For your mission here is done.
Our hearts reach out to you
Healed by your message,
Your wise & true teachings.

And once we’d understood the lesson you were here to demonstrate
We tried to deflect your reflection
But you only perched on our wisdom
Staring at your false belief
Swinging from your stance of self-sabotage
To come face to face again with your misperception of reality.

Oh blessed winged one
Please stop this temporary insanity
Don’t wear yourself out
Leaving yourself defenceless against the real enemies.
Can’t you see how your own thinking and doing
Drew them to you in the first place?

And until you find your way
Back home to where your mate awaits
We’re so grateful to know that
Someone has your back.
So sleep well tonight and rest your weary wings
And please don’t come back again and again and again tomorrow.

Thank you dearest messenger
And goodnight to you
Fare ye well
To where your return is awaited.

For as the Course in Miracles says,
On the card my house sister pulled to shed further light
Upon the true purpose of your visit for her:

“You are altogether irreplaceable in the Mind of God
No one else can fill your part of it
And while you leave your part of it empty
Your eternal Place merely waits for your return.” T167

So please return to your nest.
And here, we too, shall rest
In Peace reborn

P.S. This was the truth of the moment. In the next few days, its messages morphed according to Orinda’s state of being. The original message wasn’t fixed in time. Its message for you may be completely different. Have fun exploring the layers of meaning-making or meaning-revealing.