Do you remember when you were a kid arriving at a place that was so fun and exciting? Like the circus or amusement park or cool store that sold lots of toys? Do you remember jumping out of the car and running toward the entrance as your parent yelled to slow down and stop running?
Well I got that feeling when I visited the Eastern Shore to Bird. Literally.
Imagine it! Driving all that time! I drove from Nebraska to Virginia and finally, finally I’d made it to see the Fall Migration on the Eastern Shore. Pulling into the entrances of the birding hotspots I would get out of the car and wish that I could fly with the birds (and get some photos along the way). But alas, I am a person, so like everyone else I had to take the trails to look at the birds.
But of course my birding is part of my grief journey. It is a safe place for me to be one with God, experiencing Divine Love and Grace while in the safety of Nature. Where I can talk to God, talk to my Angel Son Ricky, and shed my tears of sorrow while feeling intensely grateful for the grace shown to me in the present.
I remember an important quote that guides my journey as a grieving mother…
“We are trying to articulate ourselves again…we might decide to do something with our wounds
The wounds are not things to be cured all the time
Old ways reinscribe old patterns
A power is at work resuscitating the agency of grieving
This is post disaster spirituality”
-Bayo Akomolafe
And God, my son are at the center of what drives my purpose in all things
So the birds, every single one of them are the divine messengers that bring me comfort along the way.
society purports to know the self, others think they know other selves, but for me, my form on Earth is but a limited slither of my being…As is believed in the Sufi tradition that confession of unity: there is no energy but Divine Energy that is distributed equally across consciousness.
When I am Nature I feel one with this thinking.
Resources:
Bird Lady of Turtle Island 