The Little Bird

In my last post I had a quote I had heard about self pity and mentioned that it took me a few days to remember where I had heard it. Last night I had gone for a run and went to add a note to myself of my time so that the next time I was logged into the computer I could add my time to my log. As I went to enter my note on my phone I noticed that I had made a note to myself to look up the poem and where I had heard it. Evidently when I had heard the poem I liked it so much that I put a note in my phone to look it up. I guess I should check my phone notes more often.

Perhaps it was seeing my note “GI Jane poem about a bird” in my phone just before bed that caused me to have the following dream. Perhaps it was more than just that. I had a dream last night and I awoke from it at about 2:30am. I thought of writing it down at the time but was too tired to turn on the light and to grab my notebook and pen that I keep next to me by the bed. (So I can write down meaningful dreams) I will try to recount the dream as best as I can.

In my dream I saw a young bird sitting in a tree in a beautiful forest. I heard a voice that narrated the dream, as if I was being told a story. The story was about this little bird. The bird was young and afraid because it was so high up in the tree and had never flown before. It felt that if he tried to fly, he would surely plummet to the ground and die. So the bird stayed in the nest. The other birds would fly by, stopping to visit the young bird and encouraging him to fly. On occasion the bird would stand on the edge of the nest and spread his wings, thinking he wanted to fly but then he would look down and see the ground so far below, and afraid would go back inside the nest.

The bird had no reason to leave the nest. His mother made sure that he was fed, friends would come to see him, he was warm and happy inside the nest. Still there was a longing in him to fly. His friends would come by and tell him of there experiences of flying and how enjoyable it was and he became sad. He felt he couldn’t fly, especially not now, he hadn’t learned while he was young. He became withdrawn and sad. Soon his friends didn’t fly by as often and he felt alone.

More and more often the bird would walk to the edge of the nest and stretch his wings, flapping them on occasion. “Someday I will fly” he thought. Yet every time he felt he was about to take that leap, he would look down and see the ground and become afraid. “I will never fly” he then thought.

One morning the bird awoke in his nest, he saw the sun rising through the trees and the blue sky above. “I want to experience that” he thought and so he walked to the edge of the nest and stretched his wings again. He looked down but this time he wasn’t afraid. “Today I will fly, or I will die trying” he thought to himself. For a moment he felt panic but then he leaped out of the nest. For a second he began to plummet towards the earth like a rock and he thought for sure he was going to die. Then after a second he spread his wings and started to fly. He began to flap his wings and fly higher and higher. Before he knew it he was above the trees, in the warmth of the sun and felt the wind for the first time.

He was happy, happier than he had ever been. He was now living his potential, he was living his purpose. For the first time ever, he felt like a bird.

That was the end of my dream, that is when I awoke.