I just held a small funeral for a quail who fit neatly into the palm of my hand. With all the grief and pain that’s been circulating around lately, burying this innocent bird properly just felt right. The quail will forever have it’s face toward the big blue sky, where it deserves to be.
It seemed the right thing to do, to honor this sweet life of a beautiful creature that had been cut too short, probably by surprise, probably when it crashed into the family room window and broke it’s neck.

I can’t help but think, “What went through it’s mind when it saw it’s reflection in the glass?” or did it not see, because he somehow forgot to look where he was going or there was a glare on the glass?…

What happens when we we think we see ourselves? Can we recognize the reflection of ourselves in another? Look what happens when there is but an unyielding surface ‘wearing a mask’ like the wolf in sheep’s clothing?
How often are we the bird, and how often are we the glass – and what do we do when we find out that we are both?

Do we not see because of the glare, the distraction all around that makes us think we are seeing something that we are not?
(in human terms, the shouting from all sides of every issue, the claims being staked in no uncertain terms, the agendas – both hidden and not so much – of the powerful that may or may not have anyone else’s best interest at heart)
It is like the siren song that would soon have us crashing on the rocks.

The fate of this little bird made me so sad, I mourn the loss of this precious life. And yet, I am grateful for the opportunity to open my own heart and think about the grief I’ve been feeling about the events in the news of late. Burying a bird with a broken neck is a small gesture, but really, that bird could have been anyone of us. I mourn for the pain in the world – the pain which humans have wrought on each other and the planet.

Can we remember that we are brothers and sisters to each other?
Can we please start acting like other people matter and that our intention is to take care of each other, not just our own lines drawn in the sand?

May this little bird sleep peacefully now and forever fly in the big blue sky.
May we all.