Food for Thought
As I sit in my "meditation room" between the two windows watching the many birds congregate for feeding, I am reminded how alike is all the 'animal kingdom'. There are perhaps nine bird feeders, plus watering pans, plus suet feeders etc. in the yard around my home. I delight in watching these feathered creatures and indeed they are a source for meditation and for contemplation. Many hours have I spent in this room watching my feathered friends, listening to them and somehow being spiritually healed in moments of sorrow or disharmony.
My life is one that I take the odd moment here and there to sit at the computer and draft what will go into the following issue of White Dove's Message. Today is just such a day. Last night the weather was predicted to be cold with sleet and possible snow. I realized about 10:00 p.m. that I hadn't put feed out for my friends but I had been thinking about them. With the weather supposed to turn very cold, I put on my jacket and gloves, turned on the outside lights and went to the bird feed stored in the sheds out back. It didn't take long, but my fingers were so numb that I had to look at them to see they were still attached to my hands. In my haste, about a half cup spilled onto the ground in one place.
This morning while drinking my hot cup of coffee inside my warm house, I am watching my friends come to feed. For a while there were none anywhere in sight. Then one lone dove came down and started eating. As with people, when one sees one doing something they become attracted and come to investigate. A flock came down and then the sparrows and the bluejays, the cardinals, chickadees, purple and house finch, juncos; just to name a few. For a time it was a feeding frenzy. All of them eating together, some fighting over 'their property', but mostly all of these different species of birds were eating together.
Perhaps we as humans might want to observe the habits of wildlife
and the manner in which they survive and get along with each other. It is true that
many are 'scrappers', having to start quarrels with any within their immediate space, but
don't we know some humans who are like that? They don't seem to know how to get
along with anyone, even their own kind or their own family. Then there are the birds
who are minding their own business, eating, not bothering anyone and just hop
away if or when another comes up wanting what they have.
Getting back to the small bit of bird feed that was spilled on the ground, when the flock of doves came down there was one who came to that particular spot and started eating with delight. However, she looked up and saw others in another place eating so she went where they were. Another came to the 'meal of plenty' only to do the same when looking up and seeing others eating elsewhere they too left. This happened time after time, with the doves, but also with the sparrows and others.
I am reminded that food is another word for knowledge or spiritual food in this case. Many people, on their own, find a bountiful meal and start taking it into their bodies either by reading, experiencing or listening. They too, like the birds, look around and see others studying something else and think they would like that too and maybe that is what will make them go faster up the 'spiritual ladder' and leave the bountiful meal of spiritual food behind. As with the birds, this doesn't happen just to any one person or group but with most. Out of all the many that sampled the feed and flew elsewhere, there was one dove that stayed. Eating and hopping out of the way of the others, standing on the side until they left and then returning to appease her appetite. As I was watching all this, she and she alone left the others and flew to the telephone line overhead to perch. There she stayed grooming herself and watching all the others while they hopped from one place to another.
The food was the same in all the feeders and on the ground from the spillage of frantic eaters in the feeders in the trees. The food was only located in different areas,. sometimes scattered with other foliage or particles fallen from the trees, but still the same.
Indeed, most of the spiritual knowledge that we seek in all the different places is similar, just presented with a different view or method or with more discipline or with self taught methods or more or less control. Some is given in a concentrated form and some is watered down or has a mixture of many different views and appears to be different to what you have been reading or studying.
The point that is being made here is stay long enough to actually eat, digest, and test. And yes, you may feed alone or with most humans as with the feathered friends eating in groups, studying in groups. it really depends on the individual and how best you digest what you eat. Many are afraid to go our into the world and eat alone wondering what will people think of me if they see me alone and not with other people. When you are feeding, studying in a group, there is more energy that is generated. If you are one who feels you need the group energy to assist you in digesting your meal, then by all means continue eating, studying with the group. If however, you have eaten with a group and found that you really prefer to eat alone and go at your own pace, then do that.
Do not allow others by words, actions, etc., to
coerce you to eat, study in a manner that feels odd to you. We are in a time now
that each of us has to find our own method and allow the digestion to happen so that each
may grown and in turn become examples for others. The more you take in the more you
can share with others. Otherwise, you will become like a very fat bird with a lot to
show for your eating but you wont' be able to share whit others and you won't be able to
fly. Please make use of all the eating, studying, and share. Do not
become a computer and data gatherer and know something about everything but do not teach
others, just sit there smugly spitting out information but not ever having experienced.
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