The morning unfolded slower than usual. I sat on the porch and watched the feeder, or at least when I wasn’t checking my watch. I needed to go; I couldn’t keep my students waiting. Where are they; don’t they know………

When I could justify no further wait, I rose from the swing – just as a tiny yellow bird arrived to the feeder. I have no idea what kind of bird he is……….and in retrospect, I’m fairly certain he didn’t eat.  He merely stopped, raised his head and pushed forward a song which must have been crowded in his little body………. Then he was off, sailing beneath the branches, beyond the fence into the field……….disappearing in a blur of wildflowers.

I smiled, took my last sip of coffee, and closed my eyes……..*thank you*  There, my blessing………. If nothing else in this life, this is sufficient. This – payment enough for my trials.

I don’t know about you, but for me, life is filled with these reminders of just how divine the way we’ve come. Tho, surely I’ve made some wrong turns, eventually they brought me to this place. A place of understanding and perspective, reality bound with strings of almost but not quite moments.

Is it faith that convinces me it is as it was meant to be, or something more – a nagging recollection of home?

Maybe it is as simple as timing.  Perhaps we have to leave in order to really miss a place; to travel to figure out how beloved the starting point was.  Maybe destiny has more to do with our dreams than ever our plans, such that we move on auto-pilot sometimes, held in place by a north star we can hardly see.

Pulled back into alignment by a tiny yellow bird.

. . .