Driving home from the gym the other day (another whole story in itself), I saw 3 birds on the side of the road. I mean they were alive. They were just standing there. The thing is, two of them were in the fenced in area with the cows and one was standing on the outside of the fence looking at his friends.
They were big, black birds with crinkly looking heads. Kinda eerie looking. Normally I don’t think I’d have given them a second thought. But on this day, my mind started going. Ok it’s ALWAYS going, but that’s beside the point. Here is the conversation that ensued in my mind.
SELF: “Look at that poor bird. He is outside the fence. His friends are inside the fence. He must be sad.
You should stop and help him.
I know you aren’t exactly an animal person, April.
But maybe you should help the bird.
I mean he looks so sad. Turn around.
Go back. Help the bird back over the fence.“
And then I realized. IT’S A BIRD. April. It’s a bird. A BIRD. I know i’m not exactly a candidate for the host of “Wild Kingdom”, but I literally spent minutes thinking about this poor bird, his plight and his absence from his friends. Not once in that time did it occur to me that he had wings.
Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself and keep going.
And as a PSA, I’ll add this. Sometimes you think you see the circumstances clearly. You think you know what you need to do. But other times, you could be missing the obvious.