Allowing ourselves to see joy
Confession.
I'm one of those people.
I stop to say Hi! to the wonderful birds I meet in my day.
Like this guy (a chill domestic Red Junglefowl):
Or this guy (a surprisingly grounded Pink-necked Green Pigeon):
Having lived in a city all my life, I used to walk past these scenes without a second thought. Obviously, I had better things to do in my Very Important Life. I would save my nature appreciation for when I was in an appropriately nature-y place, like a nature reserve or park. Spending time with the natural world brought me calm and filled me with a deep contentment But when I stepped away and went back into the concrete jungle, I was back to grumbling about crowds and travel delays.
But as I grew older, and started thinking more about joy (from reading/listening to Krista Tippett, Brené Brown, Khalil Gibran and many others), I realised that I was cutting myself from sources of joy.
The thing is, all those that sparked joy — the flowers, trees, birds and animals — in the parks and reserves, didn't just sequester themselves there. They were all around this urban tangle, if only I opened my eyes to them.
At first, to a part of me, it felt like this was some diminished version of Nature, but the real question is: would a House Crow care what I think???
Nature moves according to its own patterns regardless of what happens in our lives. No matter how bad things are, as Mary Oliver says in Wild Geese":
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
When I'm crawling through my day, a Black-naped Oriole could very well flash like a yellow bolt across the road. And when I'm all fired up, a Pink-necked Green Pigeon might just be basking in the morning sun.
There's something freeing about that.
Opening myself up to the quiet joys, has been one of the best things I've learnt to do for myself. Letting myself pause, even in the most unassuming of places, has helped create space within.
Maybe after reading this, you still want to strangle the koel that wakes you up early in the morning.
But what if we allowed ourselves to see the joy that surrounds us?
What if we stopped to say — Hi!