A Bird

 

I found a bird. A pretty little bird. She was chirping here and there when I found her. She was jumping happily inside her cage, or we can say it looked like that from a distance. I wanted to lift her in my palm and make her fly, but I sensed that she was afraid. The nearer I went, the harder she screamed. As I moved closer, I noticed that her feathers were stuck in the railing of the cage. She was jumping and crying just to get them off. But she couldn't, even after trying hard and finally, gave up. She found happiness in that cage and made it her home as if it was her destiny. She was a chick, alone and afraid when she was caged. She was all grown up now. The cage was her happy place as she spent all her time there and also, a safe house.  She didn't know there was a sky to fly; life on trees’ branches; a river to drink water from, and others like her flying around. She loved the cage until one day when her master took her out and she found there was so much she hadn’t seen yet. But she couldn’t do anything about it; whenever she got tired of the cage, she reminded herself of the comfort she was getting there. The tasty food she was offered day in and day out; no struggle to find food; the weather was set to optimum and the beautiful nest her master had built for her. She didn’t realize for all those luxuries she was compromising her freedom and the happiness she would get from a flight. It felt like she was ready to pay the price at all costs because she concluded: comfort is happiness.

My hands bled as my fingers were scratched as I tried to help her wings get free. I don't even remember when I caught the bird and started to help her. I desperately wanted to help her as I had a strong feeling to see her fly. I wanted to show her the heights of the sky and let her breathe the fresh air. Though a part of me wanted to keep her with me but obviously, not in a cage. I let my imagination run wild when I saw her standing on my shoulder as I ran in the rain through the fields of sunflowers. Her wings were flapping as she tried to catch the butterflies. I wondered how she will make her own nest and when she would, how I would secretly help her to collect the leaves and twigs to build her fort to live in; giving her a sense of ownership.

She thought I was another hunter capturing her, just to shift her from one cage to another, and she wasn't ready to bear the pain of detangling her stuck wings. She was tired of trying and terrified that she’ll lose her wings. She couldn't risk her wings because they were all she had got. Certainly, I didn’t present surety to take care of her. I guess, I was wandering with empty hands and pockets but she didn’t know I kept my word. The cage had changed her priorities from freedom to survival. She accepted the suffocating cage as her destiny and tried to find her happiness in it. And here I was still trying to cure the broken, puzzled, acting as happy, caged bird because I knew better. I knew I could give her a better life and she could take a long flight.

But, life is as it comes, trust is hard to build. It doesn’t build in a fraction of a second, years of hard work and nourishment is needed to make the foundation strong, and just a moment to shake it. The little bird was indeed a survivor. But, little did she know life puts you on trials over and over again to make you learn a lesson worth remembering for a lifetime. All she had to do was a leap of faith and take a single chance which could have changed her destiny. I did detangle her stuck wings but, I had to leave her as she wasn’t ready.

Her master came and wasn’t happy to see the scars on his precious eye candy. He replaced her with another beautiful bird. She was left in pain and alone. She did get her freedom but time and again she would reminisce about the period she had spent in the cage as she still believes that was the best time of her life.

If I were her [the bird], and you were I [the helper], think the process through. Life doesn’t give you indefinite chances as it is now or never. Once an opportunity is lost, hard to come by, so be ready when it comes. Your door might not be knocked on twice. It is all about time, it is not about being a ticking timebomb but being ready and accepting facts and taking a decision leading to clarity. Becoming goal-oriented is hard, but, willing to take your chances at the right time is crucial.

All the best!

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Sanna