The Patience of the Birds

Besides watching fish near the overflowing banks of lakes and ponds it is always interesting to watch the wading birds near the banks while I walk this time of year . I always stop and take a moment or two and observe their habits as they wait for fish to come near . Obviously beautiful , it is the patience of these creatures which intrigues me . At first the birds seem to be whiling away the time looking , scaning the surface of the water , and doing the occassional preening . But , it is their patience working a certain part of the lake which makes for interesting watching . They will watch and move ever so slowly gently placing one foot in front of the other , stop , look some more , then freeze motionless for what seems an eternity . At the right moment their beak strikes and out of the water comes a speared fish . I thought about how impatient we humans are in our fast paced society . We race to the next red light getting mad if someone slows our progress to sit yet at another light . We become perturbed if someone is not fast enough in a checkout line as if this person had control over the situation . We are impatient with a myriad of things in our society . People , things , gadgets , we are totally impatient , wanting something to happen or someone to make a decision yesterday when we know it won't happen until the future . Why is this ? We are a demanding and spoiled society . We want it now whatever it is . Sometimes we don't even know what it is but we just want it now not later . How sad for us . I see this every day . People racing around like lab mice going from one side of the cage we have created for ourselves to the other , jumping on the treadmill we call life until we exhaust ourselves to the point where we feel the need to pump ourselves with prescription drugs to balance our bodies and minds . But , back to the birds . The patience they display is nothing short of amazing . I am sure humans at some point in the past displayed similar patience hunting , gathering , and later farming but somehow all this was lost in the crazyness of post modern society . Certainly post modernity does not encourage patience as a virtue so perhaps we can learn a thing or two from these beautiful wading birds . First , take the time to breathe and observe nature . Immitate the birds . Put your feet in the water from time to time . Scan your area of life's lake . Watch for subtle changes . Wait , yes I said wait for the reward whatever form it comes in . I've never seen one of these birds toss back a fish because it was too small or the wrong kind . We are so conditioned to expect only the biggest and best of everything from the cars we drive to the houses we live in to the massive offices we work out of . Recently however we have reaped what we have sown watching an overblown and bloated economic system brought to its knees . Have we learned anything ? I hope so . Now , go out and watch the birds and decide for yourself . Breathe and be patient , even birds do it .