The Robin living its best life

I’ve written about robins before on this blog. I find them a quite charming bird and they have a beautiful song.

I was having lunch in a park this week and I heard the robin’s song. After a few minutes of searching for the bird, I spotted it on a limb not too far from the vehicle. After watching it for several minutes, I noticed a pattern. The robin would clean its breast feathers, followed by a few notes of song. It repeated this every single time.

I thought: this bird is living its best life. It’s not consumed with the ills of the world — it’s just simply in the moment, giving itself a bath and letting the world know it is there.

Could it be that simple? As humans, this is a complicated concept. Being in the moment is difficult. We have work, families, a global pandemic, mass shootings, I could go on for days. But what that bird taught me in that single moment was that it’s okay to be here, now. It’s okay to take the time to really focus in on a moment of beauty and really savor it. Will it cure our problems? Not likely. Will it help our mental health? Absolutely.

The little bird eventually flew away, but its gift to me did not. The gift of knowing that we can all stop and take a quick break from it all and focus on the moment. Whether you’re focusing on a bird or a flower or even a little aunt crossing in front of you — it’s okay to immerse yourself in that moment. It’s okay to give your brain that second or two of vacation time.