From the Diary
Saturday, 1st November 2008
7 October 2008
You know what is funny? We look at people that are famous on TV or on the front of a magazine and we value them more as Human beings. We look at people that have more money and things and think they are better than the average guy and gal. We look at others who live seemingly significant lives because they are rich, beautiful, influential or powerful and we look at ordinary and simple despising those. I have realized you don't need fame or fortune to be happy. You don't have to be popular to be extraordinary. You don't have to achieve something great to be a great person. Some of the greatest things people do go unseen and unheard of in this world. Invent an atom bomb and your name might be carved in the hallways of remembrance for a time and you might receive a Nobel Prize. Being a mom and rearing a child can be one of the noblest tasks and the greatest achievements of our life. A kindness or favor preformed to someone in need won't go unnoticed with God. A good word of encouragement spoken every now and then can be both a blessing to the one giving it and the one receiving it. Truly loving someone I believe is the greatest achievement of all time. Helping others you don't even know. And in the extreme form being good to people that treat you as their enemy. Knowing God and walking with Him I believe is the key to true happiness. Surrendering your life to him gives you contentment and you don't need to be striving to prove yourself to the world. You know who you are, you are happy with yourself and content with where you are at in your life. Don't get me wrong, we must strive to become the best we can be, but we don't need to become someone else for the sake of other people. Simple things in life can be enjoyed and simple things can bring astounding happiness.
Yesterday morning as I was reading psalm 119 aloud, a wild dove (one of those small gray birds) flew through my open window and came sitting on my head. What a delight. The bird spends the next 3 hours with me like a visitor from heaven. He even flew down to sit on my Bible to mark the page, hehe. Then I lay on my bed and the dove jumped on my stomach, puffing itself up ready for a nap. What could I do? I lay there for a while just studying this strange trusting bird. I was looking at that bird and admiring the genius of the design and I could no help saying to it: "Your God and My God. He made us both. And you must know him too" It says somewhere in the Bible that not one bird falls from the sky without God knowing it. They are also his creatures. He also cares for them. How much more does he care for us, his children?
After a while I needed to get up and get ready for work, and the weird thing was it kept following me around my room. Walking on the floor, jumping on my dresser, picking at the perfume bottles and hair
brushes, studying the mirror. Any other dove would have been frantically flying around trying to find a way out of the room. Not this one! It was inquisitive and curious. When I went over to my closet it flew and sat on the arm post of my couch looking intently what I was doing. This was a highly intelligent bird. I even asked it if it was an angel in disguise! It felt like God was visiting me and I could not help think how things used to be when animals and humans lived together without any fear of each other. This animal did not know me but it had no fear for me. What a mystical experience that was! It was really quite adorable. After a while it flew out my window, sat on the balcony railing looking at me as to let me know it was going to leave now, and then finally flew away. I was amazed that the dove took the courtesy of saying goodbye. I wondered why this dove was alone. These kinds were always seen together. But I was grateful that it was free. Free to come and go. Free to leave. It would be cruel to place a bird like that in a cage. Birds have to roam free. They have to dance in the skies. They must fly.
It made me realize. Every person no matter where they live, what they do or who they are, we all have quite unique stories to tell. Each of us is truly extra-ordinary in our own way. We have more in common than we will ever be willing to admit. We are part of the same family after all. Even tough we might not all sing the same song and each of our voices is unique. We are still birds of the same feather.
8 October 2008
Today the magic continued as two doves pitched at my window this morning. A different species from the one that came around yesterday. These where whitish with dark rings around their necks and they came in a pair. I fetched some bread and the one immediately started to eat out of my hand. The other one was more cautious with the look in his eye: Never trust a free meal. But after a while he also joined in the festivities. They sat on the balcony railing as I fed them, but they never flew into my room and only stayed for the free food. Made me wonder if the birds also had a network where they spread news and interesting conversations? How else did these two know they can trust me and get free food if they pitched at this ladies window? And it made we wonder about that other bird that came around yesterday. It never ate any food I gave it. It wasn't there for the food but the company. And that's not animal behavior at all!! Like most people the animal's notion is: what can I get out of you? Or what can I get from you? LOL usually its food. But the bird from yesterday was after love and connection. Maybe it was God in the form of a dove? Or maybe the explanation is simple. My sister reared a pink little helpless dove a year back. She found it on the ground, not a nest in sight and took it in and cared for it. It was always sitting on her head, like a nest ;) She fed it with Pronutro and milk through a tube and when it was big enough it started to go on trips on his own, always coming back in the evenings. One day it flew off but it didn't come back. It was a wild bird once again but with a human mom. Maybe it could be that bird? Missing the human connection for it was all he ever knew as a baby chick? Anyway this bird has made its appearance every now and then and the last time the band was chilling in the garden it swooped down and landed on "The Green man" (our drummer). Luckily we got to take a picture of this charming little bird. I think we should call the dove the "Peace" hehehe. If you can think of a good name for the birdy let me know!!
10 October - Vengeance is fine
What a contrast today was with the pervious two days I have been enjoying. I wasn't greeted by doves at the window but with wasps today. And they wasn't friendly or peaceful at all. I opened my glass sliding doors with the intent with sweeping my balcony when I was unpleasantly welcomed by the sting of the wasp. Aggressive little devils flying around my body very eager to pump me full of their venom. It stung like hell! Falling running ducking with my head I tried to get away from them in the process disturbing the nest they had made in a pot fill of round stones standing on my balcony. I was furious. I retreated to the closet for some Antisan cream, thankful for the antihistamine that was definitely making a difference to the burning in my skin. Now Vengeance was in order. I think the Bible says somewhere that vengeance is mine but in this case vengeance is fine!!
I had a similar experience with wasps in the past. I was wearing my swimsuit so I was not really covered to prevent their stings and when they started they didn't want to stop stinging me. I was about eight years old then but was clever enough to figure I should jump into the swimming pool. (9 stings later I was also eager to go kill them myself, and did too). Don't mess with me or you will get it was the motto.
So this time armed with a broom and doom I sought my revenge. In the commotion that followed the pot broke, round stones went flying in all directions (including off the balcony onto my car, that was parked below) and three stones the sizes of tennis balls rained down on the front of my car. Damaging the side panel and bonnet that had just been fixed the previous month. Don't ask what happened the previous month. A kid threw a brick at the school and it landed on my car. The School and the parent agreed to pay for the damage of the car. And here I was back again to square one! With nobody to blame except myself. The broom also went flying, damaging the little plant that I have been nurturing for months. It still have one leaf left... I think.
You can imagine how I felt. There I was red and starting to swell because of the poison. Pretty angry with no-one to blame except the dead wasps and their ex-nest covered in doom. And I realized that turning the cheek would have probably saved me a lot of damage to my car. But doing the right thing is not always the easy thing to do. And it's not nice to turn the cheek to the wasps of life that injure us with their hurt and poison. Injustice and people treating us wrongly without cause can be poison to our systems. That leave you feeling sick and sleepy like I am feeling now. Poisoned. What a day. Started off the wrong way. Not my day.