My Spiritual Perspective

- André Jaquet -

Yesterday I watched a small bird that was flying very fast disappear into the canopy of an old pear tree. So dense were its leaves that it was impossible to see what happened next, although I can tell you it remained inside.

I wondered how the bird had found its opening through the leaves at such a speed and then managed to align its fragile body on the branch it chose to land upon gently - all within a fraction of a second. Just imagine the flying manoeuvres required, the banking, the curling, the vertical and horizontal stabilisations, the deceleration and landing.

Memory? Calculation? Not in that tiny brain. Instinct? Maybe, but how does instinct know which way the branches of a tree have grown when no two trees are the same?

That little bird just knew. It had faith, in spite of not being able to see how things would work out.

It knew that if it stayed the course the details would be taken care of, an opening would appear and a twig would be found. In fact, had the bird prudently slowed down enough to inspect the tree carefully and logically first, she would have lost her lift and fallen to the ground.

To live a good life and to reach your dreams neither memory, nor calculations, nor instincts are the deciding factors. But faith coupled with action does it.