The Little Birds Who Listened
Finding magic when life has become too heavy
Hello friends,
Welcome back. I don’t know what summer is like with you, but it has been another hot week in Dubai.
Yet, through the layers of heat, I was reminded - that when you put your heart and your intention into something - magic can still show up to meet you.
Even when your disappointment and disillusion have convinced you there is no space for magic anymore.
Hot and Heavy
Life gets heavy. Especially in this heat, when being outside is out of the question.
I feel weighed down. By past traumas, which charge out from nowhere to trip me up and responsibilities which get in the way of hearing my intuition and adhering to a daily routine out of obligation and necessity.
These are not the ingredients which you stir together to brew joy.
And in this warm city, my brain cooks up stories about failure and my inability to overcome old patterns.
I am great at telling all sorts of stories.
The journey
So, as regular readers know, last week, I decided to create a way to find inspiration - in my life as it is, with its long hot days and stories of failing. Tiny manageable tasks for every day this August, shared, for anyone who needed a similar boost of inspiration.
And by the second day, something happened that made me feel that perhaps I wasn’t as lost as I had led myself to believe.
Out the window
Aug 1st - Prompt - Beauty. Find thirty seconds of beauty.
I was sick. But I followed the instructions from my past self. Found a beam of light and some colours out my window. I took a picture and looked at it for thirty seconds. Beauty.
Aug 2nd - Prompt - Take a photo which opens a window in your mind.
Ok. I will find this, I decided the night before and went to bed thinking about how.
I was woken at 6.30 am by a noise at the window of my sixth-floor flat.
This little Dubai bird was banging on the window, trying to get in:
I was delighted before I got out of bed.
Sometimes the non-human world responds to our needs when no one else does. Sometimes it replies to our questions so loudly. Sometimes magic lets you know, it is still there.
The window in my mind was opening.
But the birds were not done.
On the way to work. I met another two birds, one looked at me as it sang loudly from the top of a road sign.
On the metro, I opened my daily Duolingo Gaelic lesson. (I realised later Duo = another little bird). As the next module wouldn’t load, I did a different one, where you revise old lessons to gain hearts.
A few exercises in, I got the sentence:
Nach robh an uinneag fosgailte?
Wasn’t the window open?
I stopped amazed at this written answer to my prompt.
Wasn’t the window open?
And I guess it wasn’t until I tried to open the latch.
Only then, could I hope to let what I was looking for in.
Amazing! Continue
I have probably walked past these birds speaking to me on other mornings. They were talking in a language that is easy to dismiss when you are busy, stressed or sad. It is not the language of the modern world.
I don’t believe in false meaning-making. Magic is not about exercises or formulas. It meets us when we are willing to remember it is there.
And I equally know that nothing happens on big life-changing journeys unless we can meet the world in all the ways it talks to us.
There is no inspiration in a clifftop sunset or a once-in-a-lifetime trip if there is not also magic in a bird tapping manically on your window on a Friday morning when you need to get up and go to work.
I remember how to open that latch. I am listening.
I will keep looking for inspiration this August and you can join me.
Thank you to all the little birds who have shown up to support me so far.
As I post on a Sunday, and August started on a Thursday, you can find the prompts for the 1st - 7th here.
And you can find the prompts for 8th - 14th below:
Thank you for being here friends. As you might be able to tell, I am playing around with this online space, to find what serves you as a much-valued reader, as well as supports me as a writer keeping this space alive, alongside a demanding day job.
There are many more travel and creative stories on the horizon. And I would like to create some more challenges to explore creativity in community.
Your voice is always a welcome part of this conversation.
Thank you for following along as we navigate the twists and turns of this path. More adventures ahead.
Journey with me
I would love to hear from you. Tell me:
Did you meet any birds this week?
What are your inspiration blocks right now?
How do you find magic when it feels like it has long gone?
This is such a lovely idea! I have started reading a poem at the beginning of my lunch break to try to flip my brain out of logistical mode. I also saw a heron on my morning canal walk, which I was pretty excited about, but then, as I was staring at rippling tree reflections, there was a sudden flash of startling blue and a kingfisher darted by, shocking me with its speed, it’s song, it’s astonishing colour. The magic is there when we get a chance to notice it!
I adore this letter. Thanks Catriona.
I went for an early run on Saturday which was the morning of a close friend's wedding. I knew the day would be overwhelming and busy (in the best way). So the run was a chance for me to clear my head. I was gifted with so much birdlife including a Jay and a woodpecker. I could hear it pecking clear as day and after a slow rotate around a gnarled old tree I managed to sight the bird and watch it pecking. I just knew it was going to be an amazing day as it started with such beauty. (I was right)