Ah ! a pigeon

On a beautiful Sunday evening, I was downstairs, waiting for my friend to come. As always, she took so long to get ready and step out of our house. I was counting the minutes I had been waiting for her, when suddenly I heard some noise from the bush. I looked behind, unable to see anything in the dark bushes. Then, once again the same disturbing hustle in the bushes and unexpectedly, I heard the wailing of two cats fighting so bad with one another that I got scared. One was a black cat and the other was white. They were over each other, running so fast, and screaming so loudly that I started to shiver. I decided to look somewhere else and then I had a rare sight. A pigeon who didn’t know how to fly fell from a high branch and stumbled, as it fluttered its wings. It was about to land near the bushes. I think it must have seen the two cats fighting; it suddenly decided to change its destination and soared very high up in the sky

I heard another voice, someone calling my name – “Khushi, what are you staring at?”

I could just speak four words, “The Beauty of Nature”

My friend knew that I was a person who didn’t like nature at all, and she examined me  with a confused expression on her face – unable to contemplate the sudden change in my attitude

I was sure that an explanation to this change was in order.

I told my friend about the incident. The pigeon was trying to reach the ground, but saw the cats fighting, and decided it was rather better to fly high. 

I made her realize that in so many ways the bird was like a human, yet it did things we never do, things that we can do but we don’t because of the fear of change and our lack of resilience!

The bird was on a quest for finding a place to go to. Just like us humans, it was not satisfied with where it was and rather wanted to go somewhere and live life freely - taking risks and going its own way, even if it meant it had to go to a place lower than where it was now. But finally, it did it, because of the audacious spirit. We humans are brave, but laziness often gets the better of our goals!

To reach where it wanted to, the pigeon would have to survive a fall and it had the courage to do so because it knew that the best results always come after a fall; even Alice had to fall in a rabbit hole to reach The Wonderland! That was one difference between the pigeon and us. The pigeon accepted to fall, but we all fear failure!

After the pigeon fell, it was restrained to reach its destination by the fighting cats like complications in the path of a human on its way to success. Another difference, a major one. The pigeon did not give up but adapted quickly. One can be given a cactus, but it's not necessary for one to sit on it! The pigeon accepted that the cats were just a closed door, but it did not wait for another door to open, it made its own door and changed its direction to fly high in the sky. Finally reaching a place it had never imagined to be!

After I completed, my friend stood there for a second unable to understand how a fall of the pigeon led to such conclusions. And I told her how life had little to do with things that we actually see and everything to do with how we see them.

She smiled and we both started walking, perhaps in a hope for finding more such small spectacles!