The Blue Bird in the Barnyard

Dan Millman is his book No Ordinary Moments relates the story of the Bluebird in the barnyard.  
In this tale, a bluebird stays behind as his family and friends fly south for the winter believing the journey unnecessary.  As the cold encroaches, the fragile bluebird realizes that he's made a terrible error.  In an attempt to head south, the bluebird takes to the air, only to have his wings freeze in flight causing a perilous fall back to earth.  

As fortune would have it, the frozen bluebird lands on a haystack in a barnyard.  He rolls to the barnyard floor near a group of cows. Just as the heart in the lifeless body of the bird was about to beat its last beat; one of the cows relieved herself on him.  The warm manure covers and warms the bird, saving his life.

The bluebird thaws out, and happy to be alive starts to sing a beautiful song, which attracts the attention of the barnyard cat.  The cat saunters over, sorts through the manure, finds the little bird, and promptly eats it.

The fable offers at least three morals:

1) Not everyone who dumps on you is your enemy.
2) Not everyone who gets you out of a mess is your friend.
3) If you are warm and happy in a pile of manure, keep your mouth shut.

Double, Bubble, Toil, and Struggle

"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."-- Matthew 6:28-29

I've been absent for a while.  In the inimitable words of Russell Casse in the film Independence Day, "Hello Boys, IIII'mmm baaaaccckkkk!"

Recently, one of my saboteurs has been showing up telling me there's not enough time for everything in life (including these blogposts).  That's why you've not heard from me in a while.  The truth is--time is an illusion.  Certainly, as Eckhart Tolle puts it (paraphrase): We may use clock-time for practical purposes, but there is no future and no past.  There is only the now.

I'd lost sight of this fundamental truth.  Life evolves moment to moment, and as much as we attempt to schedule every moment using clock time, that technique inevitably leads to frustration, anxiety, and disappointment.  It's better to enter the river of life and go with its flow.

Through some excellent coaching from Graham Coppin,  a better perspective for me is emerging from within.  That is, be like the lilies of the field, and toil not.    

Which perspective on life do you prefer: toiling and spinning, or flowing and swimming?