Today morning, I was working out on the roof of my parents’ house. From the corner of my eye, I noticed that my old friends, the mynas, were back. 

The neighbor has blocked the chimney to prevent them from nesting, yet there they were, squawking around. I stopped my workout to observe them for a while. It’s then I noticed a little squirrel scurrying in and out of the chimney. The squirrel had burrowed through the net, and it was now their home. The mynas, though, would have nothing of it. Again and again, they pecked away at the net. The squirrel, too, came out and pecked angrily. Feathers. Tails. Squabble. Rustle. Squawk. 

Two other mynas watched this from the comfort of their own nest from the adjoining chimney. This chimney had no invasion from squatters or irritated neighbors. I smiled as I watched. The sky was a brilliant blue. I had the whole day in front of me – a tired day full of work that I never seem to finish. Yet, as I saw this battle, I was reminded of this is how we are too. 

We guard our selves so fiercely. We build houses and homes, thinking this is permanent. We leave that home and get angry to find that others have occupied it. 

We leave our self in the rotten twist of everyday busyness, thinking we will find the time later.

We leave relationships and people casually – we think we can come back to them later.  There’s always another to be found out there, we smugly tell ourselves.

We fight, thinking that we have an abundance of people to love and be loved. 

I don’t know who will win this Battle of the Nest: will the mynas get their home, or will the squirrel win? Or will the neighbor block the chimney with firmer netting?

But I know there’s no battle to be won in OUR life. Our precious wild life is no battleground. There are no winners or losers. There’s just us in the infinite embrace of life. We are dust motes, floating in the abyss of our life, but we are speckled stars as we wink and dance our way. It’s for that I ask:

If you have left someone for silly reasons, you can’t even remember, please go back to them.

If you have sacrificed your day today on the altar of busyness, please share time with your self.

And on that note, please watch this beautiful short on love, loss, and longing. It ends with hope, that we can all find our yellow umbrellas, that we can be redeemed by kindness.