Up or Down?

I love birds. The other day I dreamed of a yellow and black bird visiting our yard, and I pointed it out to my children. One of my kids’ friends said “Oh, that’s a such-and-such bird.” He seemed pretty sure of himself.

This afternoon as I sat at my writing desk, a Stellar’s jay visited the yard. They’re big, gorgeous blue and black birds (see picture) which frequent our neighborhood. Sometimes you hear them before you see them; their loud squawky cries are unmistakable.

We’ve recently added a fence to our side yard and at this moment there is a small gap under the fence. Squirrels can chose to go under the fence or scamper up and over. Cats can squeeze under or leap up to the top to come into the yard. We plan on filling it in at some point, but aren’t too worried since we don’t have dogs we’re trying to keep in.

Back to our Stellar’s jay friend. He was searching for lunch near the gap under the fence. I watched him working, pecking away at the ground, working on his prey. When he finished, would he go under the fence through the gap (which is about the right size for him) or would he fly up to land on the fence and launch from there?

Being a skyward creature, he flew.

I wanna be a skyward creature.

When faced with a situation where I could go under to get through, I want to go up—even if it’s the less convenient route (integrity is a given; I'm talking about taking the easy way out).

I want to get so skyward minded I no longer cling to the ground.

We have a choice in our thinking, too. I want to think in terms of up, rather than down—optimism.

For that jay, I think “up” was the only option. “Down” never occurred to him.

That’s the way I wanna be.