In difficult stretches, when things look bleakest, we sometimes have to release something of ourselves into the universe. When hope is fading, it may be the only action available. It’s a show of faith, perhaps in ourselves. An experiment, to see if we get a response, an echo.
Noah sat in a leaky boat, stuck on the side of a mountain, in the middle of a near endless sea. His family and two of each animal depended on him. He had no weather forecast to turn to. No radar to tell what might be in the distance.
He had the faith to send out a bird. A fragile creature to fly where he couldn’t. To bring back bad news, or perhaps a sliver of hope.
Humanity may soon have to send a metaphorical bird out into the dark, to find assurance that we linger on in the next decade, the next century, the next millennium.
On a personal level, you may have to launch your own probe out into the void when a flood, a lost job, or civil strife has clouded the future. When you’ve loaded everything on a life raft and been set adrift.
Selecting A Bird to Set Free
Noah freed a dove from the deck of his ark. It was a low-tech sensor sweep of the area. The only way to tell if the drowned Earth continued or if the sun’s rays might once again strike wet rock. A symbol to decide if Noah and his descendants would continue on.
Humanity may soon have to anxiously rely on a similar test subject, feathered or non-feathered. As the way ahead clouds over.
The natural world and the social fabric appearing threadbare and ready to rip down the center.
The test may take many forms. Earthlings may have to send a bundle of circuits to other solar systems. They may have to send a litmus test to the future to see if a future can be located. Do we persist?
It may be a biodome on Mars. A starting point that means the Earth won’t be a final resting place for the species.
Individuals will take deep breaths and send up their own tests, to get through a tough stretch. Your bird could take the form of a…
- Work of art
- A song to bring change
- A short note left for someone
- Making peace
- Waging war
Sometimes we have to get bold. Take action to improve our situation or simply to stay sane during the wait. These actions leave you vulnerable. You might need courage. Or not. Sometimes a rash decision isn’t courageous so much as it is the last option on a turbulent sea.
Accepting the Bird That Returns
Sending a search party out is never guaranteed. It takes courage to release a piece of ourselves. We have to be willing to accept the data we get back.
Noah had to show courage and faith to release one of his collected animals. The dove could be lost. The dove may return with discouraging results. And that’s what happened in the story told in Genesis Chapter 8: 6-12.
Noah didn’t find the answers he wanted. The bird returned. This could only mean it didn’t find a place to land. No dry earth. But we must also follow Noah’s lead here too. We have to accept the data, but we must also resolve not to quit. To release more tests.
Noah released the dove a second time. It returned that evening with the branch of an olive tree in its mouth.
It’s a moment U2 immortalizes in song “see the bird with a leaf in her mouth.”
It was truly a Beautiful Day. That twig means there is dry land somewhere again. God has not forgotten the human race.
But that’s not the end of the story. Noah sends out a dove a third time. It never returns. It has found enough of a tree, a gentle hillside, to rest on, to build a nest on. And Noah can’t be upset when his little symbol of hope moves on. It’s why you send up something of yourself. If it takes roost and inspires someone else, it’s okay. You’ve proven you aren’t alone.
You exist and will continue to. Let go and prepare for the next release during the sunny days and rainy nights to come. END
Scott is an odd bird who has written about birds before. Try his bird perched over a pond when you need inspiration. Check out bird feeder mediations when you require tranquility. And when your path gets cloudy, read up on how to handle forks in the road.
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