A lot happened this week. It is hard to describe the gratitude I felt when I saw the principal standing outside the school doors, under an umbrella, dressed in her professional clothes in torrential rain; or the sorrow that only moments later arose when I saw the beautiful duck or was it a goose? lying in the middle of the road, with its best friend flapping, begging him to get up as the man with slumped shoulders threw bread crumbs in a path leading it away.
In that moment, I pulled my car over, wrapped the bird up and carried it over to the side of the road and placed it down, out of the way. It was a beautiful beast. and I cried. I didn't know what more I could do. I asked the man should I just leave him here? and he nodded yes.
I wondered about those two events, why they fell only moments apart, and how they could resonate so deeply. It made me think about timing and the choices we make - not just as individuals but as a collective whole - how my son's school principal chose to stand out in the rain; how the man sprinkled bread crumbs; how that duck missed its mate; how I held that beautiful beast and looked at the soft white feathers on its neck and couldn't distinguish my tears from the rain.
Every day one of the principals at school is there to greet the children and whether the children are outwardly aware of it or not, they are registering it on a profound level that some one is there to welcome them in. The man scattering bread crumbs didn't need to, but he chose to because saving the other duck mattered. In that morning, I felt how intimately connected we all are in one village, stretched out along one long road, any day of the year. We may not always register this, but in an instant it is all revealed.
I feel that way about the process of healing, that as deeply personal as one's journey is, the journey is made better by the collective conscious that tells each and every one of us that we're never alone and that we are all part of something bigger and greater, connected to something that says it's ok to be chipped, broken, cracked and fragile, because some one will always hold a door open, or lead you to a safe place, or help you carry a burden. We're all in it together.
