6. Blue Jays

Bruce Springsteen once sang

“if you’ve ever seen a one-legged man… you’ve seen me.”*

Well, I once saw a family of blue jays,

some bound to the ground.

Some flew on the breeze through the trees.

And I saw ants too.

Ants always seem so destructive.

But not nearly as destructive as man.

Is earth now treating us humans?

The same way I treat an invading ant-clan?

To protect my home, I’ll get out the TERRO.

Is Mother Earth… also getting out Her Raid?

Because She’s tired of being exploited for ‘likes’,

tired of this egoic consumerism charade?

You see these two blue jays

seem to have been born missing tail-feathers.

Or maybe all blue jays are born this way?

Maybe they all develop sheltered under tables?

As they await tail feathers, to then fly away.

Do all young blue jays hide away on homeowner’s patios?

And do all their parents, and all their parent’s friends

scream into defensive positions from the trees as they descend?

Dive bombing the man who lives there.

Protecting awkward, fragile, overgrown chicks

from this human and all of his cares.

To be fair I did once relocate one of these adolescent birds

to the lawn using the back of a chair.

But that was before…

of this whole blue jay fiasco I became aware.

I just acted on dumb-instinct like a dare

Gotta fix the problem,

get the blue jay up and out of there.

Our patio doesn’t even have stairs.

But up in the trees when I sat to meditate about 2:00.

I came to learn these two hopping,

squawking, no tail-feathered jays

had a crew. They came out of the blue.

Seemed like nothing they wouldn’t do.

Blue jays buzzing my ears and then flying away.

At that moment, all I could do, was what I set out to do. Pray.

Intending to influence the energy of our shared environment.

And undo the threat they saw in me.

Breathe some peace up into the air

and from panic let peace set them free.

I prayed “God, help the blue jays with no tail feathers.

And those with wings… busy protecting them too.”

Who knows what’s blowing in on this weather?

It’s gonna take a miracle for us jays to make it through.

And with that the volume did actually dim.

The protective jays settled onto their limbs.

Breathing In: I relaxed body and mind.

Breathing Out: I enjoyed a smile.

Breathing In: I am present… no more grind.

Breathing Out**: I am in awe of eternity growing wild.

Book: "Into The Now", (presale) by Arch Cowan Jones

Website: Intothenow.org

Instagram: IntoTheNowOfficial

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