Only a bird…

Sometimes there is only a blackbird in the whole world.

The clamour of the streets, the incessant chatter of a room full of people, the distant noise of a thousand cars… these are the things that assail our senses daily. Most of us are so used to their constant hum it is only in their absence that we really notice them any more.

But sometimes there is a momentary beauty that captures the attention. Like the song of a blackbird. Then, all else fades into insignificance and ceases to exist as we enter into enraptured communion with the moment.

There was such a moment tonight, when the world faded for me and that song was the only thing in creation. It lasted but a few minutes, but it was, for those moments, as if all the beauty in the world had been condensed into those notes.

There are other moments too. When, perhaps, the sunlight catches the surface of a leaf and plays there, illuminating the veins and pores, throwing the texture into sharp relief and drawing the eye inward to the life in the cells, the green sap rising and the deep connection with earth and sun.

The heady scent of a summer rose in the evening that captures the senses and transports you through memory and time.  Light sparkling on the water of a mill race or the rhythmic movement of the waves. The locked glance of a lover’s eyes.

Transient, immediate, engrossing, these fleeting beauties become, for a moment, the whole of existence for us. They communicate with something deep within and lift us out of time, away from care and worry, even in the darkest hours gifting us with access to peace and gladness. And when our hearts are light, they are moments of incomparable joy when we share the thread that runs through creation in full consciousness, deeply aware of the kinship of life and our place within its web.