A Life Lesson from a Wattle Bird

I’d been having a rough couple of days. I mean, nothing was wrong. But you know those days when you’re just out of sorts? You drop something in the kitchen and as you bend down to pick it up, you hook yourself on a draw knob, which puts you off balance and you bump into a water bottle that somebody in your household placed too close to the edge of the bench, which then topples and bounces off the floor, lands under your foot and upends you. You know? That sort of thing. And it’s one thing after another.

You start questioning; ‘What’s going on? Is there some kind of curse against me? Do I not deserve ease? Why can’t things go smoothly?’ And you notice thoughts like, ‘Typical! Of course it would start raining the moment I hang my clothes on the line!’ No. It’s not typical and no, the universe did not place a vendetta against you and frankly, Murphy manifested his own law. How do I know this? A dear little Wattle Bird showed me.

The weather was atrocious. It was cold, cloudy, raining and/or windy; depending upon the mood of the South Australian coastline. She was characteristically rumbustious that day. When I dared venture outside, I saw a Wattle Bird in hot pursuit of a moth. Finally victorious, the Wattle Bird flew up to a nearby powerline with its soon-to-be lunch firmly immobilised in its beak. However, just as it landed on the powerline, trouble struck in the form a huge gust of wind. Now off-balance, it flapped its wings vigorously to regain composure. The moth capitalised upon the moment and made its hasty escape. The Wattle Bird, now mothless, sat there ruffled. It sat, fluffed up and still. It sat (long enough for me to lose interest) with neither a meal in its belly nor a thought in its head.

It did not sit there and complain about the wind stripping away its protein for the day. It didn’t complain about all that effort exerted in vain. It didn’t feel less worthy for having lost its bounty. It didn’t turn the event into a story about ‘poor little me’ or fuel a belief that ‘life is unfair’ or ‘bad things always happen to me.’ It was not concerned about what to do next or worried about where its next meal might come from. And it did not suffer. No. It simply sat, in stillness, fluffed up and seemingly content, awaiting the next divine impulse.

Perhaps there was a greater purpose at play. Perhaps the Wattle Bird missed its meal to demonstrate a lesson for a spiritually impoverished human. Or perhaps the moth had not yet fulfilled his purpose on earth. It just wasn’t his time yet. He reached the pearly gates only to be told, ‘No, you cannot enter; you have not yet fulfilled your purpose as the moth you intended to be.’

So, I leave you with this; what if life is simply being life and humans are the ones attaching meaning to it? What if life could be seen as a mirror but only insofar as to identify what constructs you have built in your mind? And today, could you practice refraining from placing meaning upon the occurrences of your life? Does it matter what you think about things? Your initial response might be, ‘Yes! Of course, it matters what I think!’ But really, if you think about it, (haha!) the things you thought ten years ago no longer have relevance; they no longer matter. You have most likely moved on from your former mind-made constructs because you are evolving rapidly. I often have thoughts, opinions or judgments about things only to find they are retrospectively incorrect because of a limited perspective. For example, the sun will rise and set every day, yes? But if you were in outer space, with a perfect view of the entire solar system, the sun would neither rise nor set.

This is the beauty of recognising the limitedness of the mind; its little boxes are no longer pertinent when you remove the physicality of a restricted embodied experience, that is, being a human alive on earth. In truth, you are indescribably more than your little human form.  

So, since you are presently a human and one who knows its limitations, can you keep your mind free and open to new possibilities and observations? Could you meet what happens in your life today with the attitude ‘I know not what this or anything else means’? Then notice how you feel. You don’t have to carry a myriad of constructs within your mind. What a relief it is to not know, to simply observe, to be and to release the heavy burden of what you thought you knew. Life can now surprise you. Life can now delight you. Life can now access you where before, you had filters in the way. Now, you can have peace and stillness. Now, you are free as a Wattle Bird.  

For more messages shared by the natural and supernatural worlds, you may like to read my book ‘They Came to Wake Me - True Stories of Angels, Healing & Mystical Encounters.’

Much love and peace xo