TWIG AND NEST

“I think I could turn and live with wild animals. They do not sweat and whine about their condition. Not one dissatisfied.”

~ Walt Whitman

It was a very small thing, watching a robin carry a twig too big for its nest.

It tried once, then twice, to use it, and somehow, with its very small bird brain, it knew it was no good. It simply flew off and picked another.

I went and found the twig. There wasn’t a mark on it. I rolled it in my hand and thought of all the times I’ve labored, trying to make things too big to fit. So often what we want it like that twig, too big to be of use, and we stay lodged in an unhappiness created by holding on to something that can’t complete our nest.

It was humbling to watch a small bird work, singing as it went, leaving what it couldn’t use as it found it. If we could only treat each other with such simple kindness.

~ Meditate on your life as a nest that needs to be put together.

~ Consider what you are after, what you are carrying - like a stubborn bird - that is too big to be of use.

~ Can you put your life together more thoroughly by taking up some smaller version of what you need, something that fits?

The Book of Awakening

~ Mark Nepo