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Even compassion can be for the birds
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Things My Father Taught Me
By Mary Regina Morrell
Even compassion can be for the birds
"The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another." Thomas Merton
Everyone seems to have their own method for lifting their spirits. Mine is birds - any kind, any where, and God is usually generous in providing them. Recently, while I was spending some time alone at the shore, I found myself giving into melancholy and loneliness and began fighting bouts of tears.
Berating myself for being so weak, I picked up a book and went to sit outside on the patio where there was a low-hanging lighthouse bird feeder.
Surely there would be birds enough to bring a smile, but they were nowhere to be seen or heard.
Then an unusually sweet sound began in the trees hanging over the nearby fence. Ordinarily, there was a great variety of birds I could count on seeing during the course of a day; some even began singing before dawn, but I had never heard this one before. I scanned the tree branches fruitlessly, feeling that on this day even the birds were keeping their distance. Finally, I sighed out loud, "Why are you hiding?"
I glanced away from the trees to see tears staining the pages of my book when suddenly a small bird swooped down from the roof, its wing brushing the pages on my lap. Then it came to light on the cement patio directly in front of my feet.
How beautiful it was! A tiny creature whose head was black as midnight and wings as brilliant a yellow as any morning sun - his eyes intent on my face and sitting close enough to touch. My breath caught in my throat so as not to startle him into flying away, but I couldn't suppress the smile.
At that moment he cocked his little head to one side as if to say, "Well, didn't you ask to see me?"
The gesture was priceless and caused a feeling of delight to well up inside me, escaping in an unexpected peel of laughter - and that did startle my new friend and he did fly away. But from that moment on I held to the feeling of delight in my heart and vowed to remember it was God who planted it there and God who nurtured it until it had taken root again.
In what seemed like a simple moment of compassion, God reminded me that I would never be forgotten or unloved and God would use all of the little miracles of creation to remind me of that whenever I needed to be assured.
God will do the same for each of God's beloved children. We only have to remember to take the time to look -- or listen - with a "sincere and upright heart and "every creature (will) be . . . a looking-glass of life and a book of holy doctrine." (Thomas a Kempis)
What a beautiful thought.
__________________________________
Mary Regina Morrell is the author of Angels in High Top Sneakers from Loyola Press.
Contact
Diocese of Metuchen
http://www.diometuchen.org
NJ, US
Mary Regina Morrell - Associate Director, Office of Religious Education, 732 562-1990
mmorrell@diometchen.org
Keywords
compassion
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