I realised, I never saw a bird fly

Sept 20, 2020:

5:30 pm, I was taking a stroll on my terrace. It had just rained. The atmosphere turned cosy, the cool monsoon breeze, the cloudy sky and the lush green vegetation all around. 

Turned out I was not the only one out there, enjoying this enchanting weather. Birds: I saw a pretty large number of birds that were flying around.

I could recognise a few sparrows, kingfishers, parrots and cranes. To my surprise, there were also a large variety of small birds which I couldn't recognise.

I was so curious about these birds, soon I found myself studying their behaviour. Some liked travelling in groups while others enjoyed flying in solitude. I couldn't help but notice that each bird had different flight patterns. Few flapped their wings continuously, while some liked to glide as few flaps as possible.

As I watched these birds, one particular blackbird caught my eye. This little one was a size of a sparrow and had been flying around alone. Not sure what piked my interest but I started observing him more closely.

He performed a series of actions. He would first take off from a tree and fly as high as he possibly could. I felt that he was trying to reach the highest point he could as I could see he would struggle a little as he reached his maximum capacity. After reaching his highest point he would glide for a couple of minutes flap once or twice and then glide again. After gliding for around 10-15 minutes he would find a nearby tree and sit on it. Then it would repeat this process again.

It was soothing to watch the little one fly, I lost track of time. I realised I had been looking at him for an hour now. That made me wonder what was he exactly doing. Well, it made no sense, he was neither searching for food nor seem like a baby bird learning how to fly. And interestingly this guy was alone all this while. My problem solver head couldn't resist wanting to figure out what was going on. I thought for quite a while, but I was not able to come up with anything logical.

Maybe he did not really have an objective, maybe just like me he was enjoying the weather and was playing around. I had a strong feeling he absolutely loved to glide and it was doing something which pleased it.

Our literature says that we have a lot to learn from nature. And yes, I did learn a thing or two from this bird.

• Everything you do doesn't need to have a goal
• I have a very goal-oriented mindset. I always try to optimise my time to reach the goals I have set for myself. I am in this constant rat race I have created for myself in my head.
• That is not necessarily bad, but the problem with that way of living is that I tend to miss the small things in life. I always end up living/thinking about the future and fail to savour the moment in front of me.
• The bird didn't seem to have a concrete goal it was just enjoying the moment, maybe I should too. Just like how watching the bird felt calm and soothing maybe just living in the moment is something I need to practice more often.
• Solitude is part of nature
• I couldn't help but notice this bird was alone, yet he seemed full of energy as he soar to his highest point and gently glided down. He seemed to be enjoying his own company and he did not really need anyone else to have a nice time.
• Maybe I learn that, I learn it's ok to be alone sometimes and enjoy my own company. Maybe I paint, maybe I write or maybe I just take another walk to watch another bird. 
• It's okay to be alone, there are many things in nature that are alone most of the time, but learn to be happy as they are.

• Your energy and enthusiasm is very contagious
• That little bird was full of energy, as I saw it I felt happy, I wanted it to reach a little higher than the last. I was cheering him without knowing it myself.
• I think that's because his energy was impacting me in a strong way. What I think is, if you do something you love with enthusiasm and passion you start radiating positive energy around you, this positive energy also happens to be contagious and makes people around you happy. (Maybe this is what has been called the life energy in various literature) 

I should observe these things more often maybe they can teach me more. I also realised it is not so easy to capture a bird's photo. I gotta give credit to those amazing wildlife photographers, trust me it is not as easy as they make it look.

That was a pleasant day, and I quickly jot down yet another entry in my TODO: BIRD WATCHING.