Nearly every day some seemingly insignificant object or event offers a little life lesson, a spiritual truth or a personal meaning for me. I muse a lot. Today it was the grackles.
If you were to say, “You must have too much time on your hands” I would understand.
But truthfully, I have always done this. I think it is in my DNA and if you have to blame someone, blame my dad. He was a farmer, scientist, and devoutly committed to God. So it was very common to hear him “philosophize” about something regarding life, animals, nature, or whatever popped into his mind, and bring God into the picture. He would “wax eloquent” while at dinner or while driving us for our nickel ice cream cones ( a very special treat). We often rolled our eyes and appropriately whined, “Dad.. really, do you have to?” He did have to and we learned a lot from him.
So, here is today’s picture . . .
Tom’s routine includes stumbling out to the kitchen, opening the window and pouring seeds onto the bird feeder attached to our kitchen window.
Then he prepares for work, comes back to the kitchen, sips his coffee and watches the birds.
This morning I was cleaning in the other room and I heard him shout, “Get out of there you no good varmits!”
I figured he was mad at some squirrels for gobbling up the seeds, but it wasn’t the squirrels. “It’s those greedy grackles! They are just plain no good varmits.”
Now, before you get some exercise by jumping to conclusions (which is often our most frequent exercise of the day) and believe I am judging Tom or becoming too woo-woo like, let me assure you neither is true. I often feel the same way about our seemingly greedy grackles.
Let me ask you . . . Do you ever feel like you are not as good-or smart-as or successful-as other people?
Strangely, at the same time Tom was “judging” those grackles I had just been having a private battle in my own head. While cleaning, I had heard a remarkable news item about doctors doing an unbelievable surgery to save a girl’s life who had a tumor in her heart. It was an awesome story and I was feeling grateful for the brilliance and bravery of doctors who take risks. These doctors sure were not “grackles.”
While it is good to admire others’ talents and successes I often don’t just leave it there. I tend to indulge guilt and/or shame about not doing enough, being enough etc, etc. I have found some healing of late for that crazy thinking by reminding myself that most, if not all of our judgments are based on personal and often faulty perceptions and not truth. The Truth is . . . God loves each one of us equally.
So I asked Tom, “Is that really true? Are grackles really “no-good varmits? We like the song birds etc. but to God they are likely all the same.” Of course I did not expect Tom to answer and wisely, he didn’t!
I knew I was not “defending” the grackles. I was defending myself for being “less than” the doctors. The grackles, I muse, are just fine with their role. They have nothing to defend, (nor do I really). They get the same sun, rain, and food as the birds that Tom and I prefer. The birds do not care if we judge them or not. (Oh to be a bird). They just live by the laws of Nature and do what they were designed to do. We too are all equally loved by the Source of Love.
Thanks to the grackles, I was reminded that each of us must be who we are designed to be. Joy comes in feeling the Love behind the design. Each of us has equal value and when we accept that truth we find more peace. But in a world always striving to be “better than” it is difficult to remember that all are of equal value. We simply serve different purposes. A grackle is not a cardinal. An elephant is not a cheetah. As parents, this is a fine lesson for us to understand deeply for ourselves. We believe it for our children more easily than for ourselves. But when we personally live it they will sense our peace and absorb its truth.