The birds will tell you. Watch. Take this one, for example. This strident singer, pausing mid-trill to make the expression that translates loosely to never mind. This upon finding herself in the company of another kind of bird than she expected. The place to which instinct had led her had changed. The other bird is frightened by these strange notes. They belong in an elsewhere that used to be here. Now it may be nowhere. She makes sounds that translate loosely to it’s okay. Once calmed, the frightened bird returns to singing the familiar notes of the region. The now silent stranger waits, nodding, then flies again, wings sighing. It had been so long between landings. The next will be longer.
Now she remembers. There is a way to stay in flight while sleeping. Hold the wings. Let the currents do the work, move only to pivot and slice between them when you must. Decide there is no other place but this flight. Forget wanting to land. Here is the song. She pulls it to her, full and close.
Interesting coincidence: augury was a word I was working with a few days ago and ultimately discarded in the piece I was writing. If it was a more common word, I might not think much about your use of it but… 🙂
Thanks for the weird little realization and the great piece.
Wow, thank you for this, Michael. I often wonder about these threads in the air, what they are doing and cherish these strange recognitions of what does not make our kind’s sense : )
It is certainly fun to consider the possibilities. 🙂
Two nights ago, I dreamed that birds were plotting to overthrow the US government. I could understand them because I held the ‘translation stone’ and obvious mental rip off of Joseph Smith’s seer stone. How do you understand them?
O my gosh, Jeff. I love this so much. “The translation stone!” Thank you for this. When it comes to birds, I suppose I know that I don’t understand them, really, but since I know that I probably don’t understand anyone else either, not fully, I can’t help imagining that we are sharing language. Since I have always walked around being aware of my inability to know anything, I tend to lean into the places that offer the most imaginative possibility. Now that I think about it, my Grandma had a real kinship with birds, as well as a running conversation with the beings she called guardian angels, so I may have conflated the two. : )