I woke up to a blindside.
My Friday all alone, to get work done, and clean the house, and maybe...just maybe...do some writing...took a fast turn.
Two kids home from school for reasons one might consider medical, if they knew nothing about medicine...
two unruly dogs who like to bite my leg while I work...
and two birds that flew straight into my sliding glass door.
Which wasn't even clean.
These birds?
They completely derailed the day.
Because now I had birds to care for.
Two of them.
With a zip lock baggie over my hand and a large leaf in the other, I gently guided them into a Nike shoe box.
The dogs stood on the other side of the glass, licking their lips and wagging their tails.
A perfect target for a hungry beast- the lame, the paralyzed, the hurting, the too frightened to make a move.
And so I carefully carried the shoe box into my laundry room, and set them on top of the dryer.
I sprinkled bird food at their feet and held up sunflower seeds to their tiny beaks. Beaks, that up close, truly looked like they could poke my eye out at any given moment.
One bird managed to stand, but kept his eyes shut.
The other stayed on his side, until finally, was able to prop himself up on his skinny sticks for legs.
I talked to them.
I took their pictures.
I promised they would be ok.
Then I screamed.
Because one started to fly and I knew it was going straight for my eye.
It landed on my door.
The other flew out of the box and landed on a laundry bag.
Two kids home.
Two dogs barking.
And now two birds flying...in my house.
And how does this end?
Well.
In their own time, they flew away to a nearby tree.
But it was the hour before they flew that amazed me.
These birds barely moved.
Were they stunned by the hit?
Were they afraid of me, their rescuer?
Were they injured?
Were they confused?
I kept careful watch....checking on them every now and then.
I knew they were vulnerable, and that the one...his eyes...they were still shut...and I know all too well what can happen when you are vulnerable with eyes closed:
the hungry beast comes to devour.
I remember being motionless.
Sitting on my bathroom floor.
Stunned.
Afraid.
Injured.
And confused.
The perfect target for the evil one.
And it was in that place that I was taught a very hard, but very important lesson.
It was in that place that I heard His voice.
Be still.
Just be still.
Feel your sadness.
Feel your pain.
Do not run from it.
Rest in it.
I have come to save you.
And I promise. I won't poke your eyes out.
Ok.
I didn't hear that.
But truth be told, I was given new eyes.
So maybe He did poke my eyes out, to make way for the new ones.
But the birds.
And the lesson I was reminded of.
No matter how hard the hit, we will fly again.
Clipped wings grow stronger.
We soar like never before.
We open our eyes.
We open our eyes and we fly.
