Feathers




public domain photo taken by Rita Ballantyne

  Haven't been spending enough time out in nature lately.  My heart has been heavy, feeling a bit like lead, truth be told.  Perhaps it's to be expected, now that the year of traveling has ended and I have found a home.  Perhaps it's the change of seasons.  I generally love the autumn, it's always been my favorite time of year.  But this year I am missing upstate New York and the brilliance of the season there.  Of course, if I really remember this time of year in upstate New York, we'd get a few days to ooo and ah over the trees, but then, when the trees were at their absolutely most beautiful, the rain would begin, and go right through the month.  None the less, I am thinking about the wonderful harvest festivals and fields of pumpkins, and, and...Oregon is beautiful. 

What is it about the human heart?  Always yearning for what it doesn't have?  Always looking backwards or forwards, aching and missing and dreaming.  And in the meantime, we miss the thing right in front of us...like that feather in your path.

I love to find feathers.  Not the feathers of yesterday's gossip.  But the feathers that birds have left, feathers which have fallen, right in my path.  When they arrive, they signal to me that I need to wake up, pay attention and open my heart to some special experience that will come to me that day.  Usually a wonderful conversation with someone.  Sometimes a visit from Spirit in surprising ways.  Sometimes a tangible gift follows.

A few weeks ago, when I thought I was leaving the area to go back to New York, a friend and I had taken the dogs out to the lake for a walk, and had brought our lunch with us.  We had a great time together, though my friend's dog is older, and took a couple of tumbles on the rocks.  Still, he seemed happy to be out, sniffing the smells.  Joy, my dog was happy as could be.  We walked and explored, found a really large agate and some other beautiful stones, munched on our sandwiches and then walked back to the car.  I trailed a bit behind, wanting to drink in the beauty one last time, watching for the eagle or osprey which frequent that place.  As I looked down where I was walking, I noticed feathers.  Small feathers in abundance.  They were caught all the way along the crumbling pavement by my feet.  Clumps of them all the way along.  And they didn't all look like they had come from the same bird.  I smiled.  Knowing that my path, wherever I was going would be full of Spirit's gifts and assistance, full of good hearted people, wonderful conversations, deep connections and provision.

Some of those feathers were no doubt goose feathers, but a week or two later, I was reading about eagles and osprey in a coffeeshop, and there were photos where I guess they were preening, and there were bunches and clumps of small feathers that looked surprisingly familiar.  Wow.

The natural world is so full of surprising and beautiful gifts.  What will fall in your path today?  Keep your eyes and your heart open.  There's a world of possibility out there.