Surrounded By Starlings

On my walk the other day, I came across a flock of starlings busily pecking in the rain-softened earth of a newly planted cornfield. On some cue I could not discern, the birds suddenly decided to move to the other side of the road and I found myself completely surrounded by starlings. Their exuberant chirping and the synchronous beating of hundreds of wings enchanted me. I wanted nothing more than to lift my arms in joyous imitation.

There are days when I would gladly resign as an adult and be a child again, giving in unthinkingly to the moment, dancing to the music of bird wings. As I stood gazing at the starlings, it occurred to me that our ability to think too much about a thing does not always serve our best interests. I looked hastily around, saw that the farmer who had been puttering about the nearby barn was nowhere in sight, and in a moment was twirling about in the middle of the deserted road, happy as the starlings that flew all around me.

The sun at their backs, their shadows flew along the ground below them, mirroring in silhouette the beating, pulsing wings. Like all moments of sudden and unexpected beauty it startled my heart into seeing and was over too soon. I stood and watched the birds swoop and rise and swoop again, wishing I too, could fly, wishing that I knew exactly where I was going and how to get there, pulled like the starlings by an instinct I didn’t have to ponder.


Go here to read another post about starlings and see a phenomenal video.


photo credit: lancaster.unl.edu/.../ Animals/starlingroost.jpg 

Thanks for this,  Hilary!